Ramadan and Our Culture

It's Ramadan again! As usual, this time of year, Muslims will try their hardest to make sure that they benefit from this month as much as possible. They fast everyday, go to the mosque every night for Tarawih, try to do more charity, try to be less bad-mouthed, and try to instil virtues in heart. But sadly, there are also some Muslims out there who make fasting nothing more like a cultural celebration. And I think this is a major problem in Malaysia.

Fasting is not just about withdrawing from eating and drinking, but it's about refraining your whole body and mind from sins and bad things. Whenever it's Ramadan, TV and radio will always wish you, "Happy fasting!" But do you think when they wish that, they actually say that in full perspective of fasting in Islam? I have seen some Muslims who fast because it's cultural to do so, but at the same time, abandoning the obligatory prayers. My father also comments about how people keep praying congregationally for Tarawih (which is good), but they seem to abandon the obligatory ones.

Tarawih is also usually just very festive in the first half of Ramadan and after that, you can see that praying lines in mosques are slowly and gradually reducing. So, I was thinking that, making changes is not difficult, what's difficult is maintaining it. I'm not just speaking about others, but also about myself. I hope we all have the heart and strong mind to make self improvements and maintain those improvements even when Ramadan ends.

So, I would like to take this opportunity to pray that in this Ramadan, we will be blessed with strong and persistent faith, strong and persistent motivation to act on that faith.