FAREWELL TO RAMADAN_ BY PROFESSOR TIMEHIN OLUROTIMI

Alhamdulillah, Ramadan has come and gone, and the month of Shawwal has commenced. I say 'Eid Mubarak to you and all Muslims. All praise belongs to Him Who granted us the grace of turning ordinary days into sacred moments, and all salutations to the noble Prophet who brought the message that lifted us from the pits of bestiality to the towers of humanity. 

Today, we finally bid farewell to Ramadan - the guest we welcomed with joy thirty days ago. It came quietly… treading softly. It softened hearts and calmed nerves. It revived the Qur’an in homes, awakened azkaar in hearts, and brought tears back to eyes that had forgotten how to cry before Allah.

Ramadan is not merely thirty days that passed.

It is thirty mirrors placed before your soul - mirrors asking: Did you return to Allah? Did you touch lives?

Did you become stronger Did you forgive people?

Did you discipline your desires? Did you rediscover your purpose?

Allah says:

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you so that you may attain God- consciousness."

(Qur'an 2:183)

Yes, the big question - to you, to me, to everyone of us remains: 

Who among us has truly changed?

Ramadan was never about hunger and thirst. It was about transformation. The Messenger of Allah, (SAW), once descended from his pulpit and said “Aameen” three times.

When the companions asked why, he said: Angel Jibril appeared to me and said: 

O Muhammad, I want to make some supplications and I want you to say "Aameen" to them.

Then, he (Jibril) said: 

"Wretched and humiliated is the person who reaches Ramadan but leaves it without attaining Allah’s forgiveness.”

And the Prophet (SAW) said "Aameen'. 

Imagine the tragedy! You are immersed in a whole ocean of mercy, yet you choose to die of thirst; you are placed under a sky releasing a torrential rain of forgiveness, yet you refuse to open your heart and soul.

Remember, Ramadan is not only about how much you fasted. It is about how much you earn Allah’s Mercy and Clemency.

Someone asked me:

How do I know if my Ramadan was accepted?

I don't really know, but early scholars of Islam said: 

"The reward of a good deed is the ability to perform another good deed after it.”

They further asserted that if after Ramadan you find yourself loving prayers more, reciting and reflecting on the Qur’an, being more conscious of your utterances and actions, and avoiding sins you once took for granted, then Ramadan did not leave you empty.

But if everything returns to what it was before, then Ramadan only passed over your body but never entered your heart. Though the calendar days of Ramadan has ended, its true spirit was never meant to end. It was meant to train us for the eleven months ahead, and to abide with us till the next, if we are fortunate enough.

The Lord of Ramadan is also the Lord of Shawwal, Dhul-Qaʿdah, Dhul-Hijjah, and every moment of our lives. Allah says:

“Worship your Lord until certainty (death) comes to you.”

(Qur'an 15:99)

Our relationship with Allah must not be seasonal, and neither must it be transactional. Some people know Allah only in Ramadan. But the righteous know Him in every breath.

Think deeply about this. Some people who prayed with us in the first night of Ramadan are now lying beneath the soil. Some voices that chanted the Qur’an during the month are now silent in their graves. And truly, some of those who fasted this year will not see another Ramadan.

For many people, this was their last Ramadan, they just did not know it. Perhaps, for someone reading my reflection today, this was the last opportunity. They had toiled, laboured, and struggled. Allah alone has the scorecard.

Allah says:

“In this, let the competitors compete.”

(Qur'an 83:26)

The last days of Ramadan were not days of exhaustion. They were days of sprinting on the spiritual track. This is because the greatest treasure of Ramadan might be hidden in one night- Laylat al-Qadr - a single night that is worth more than eighty-three years of worship.

Though you did not slow down then. You ran faster and you prayed harder. But now that Ramadan has officially left, you may, perhaps, ask yourself three questions:

1. What sin did I abandon?

2. What habit did I build?

3. How did my relationship with Allah change?

*LIf Ramadan left you and nothing changed, then your experience of Ramadan was only a calendar event. But if it left and you are no longer the person you were before it, then congratulations, your Ramadan was a rebirth!

A righteous man once cried on the last day of Ramadan. People asked him: “Why are you crying? We should celebrate.”

He replied:

“The righteous cry because they fear their deeds may not be accepted.”

The early Muslims would pray for six months that Allah allow them to reach Ramadan. Then they would pray for another six months that Allah accept it from them. Being able to witness the end of Ramadan was therefore not a season of pride. It was a season of humility, self-examination, renewal of determination.

Beloved, Ramadan has left, but Allah is not leaving, the Qur’an is not leaving, the mosque is not leaving, and the door of repentance is not leaving.

If Ramadan changed you, protect that change. If it softened your heart, do not let the world harden it again, and if it brought you closer to Allah, never walk away again.

I most humbly beseech Allah to grant us all many years in His service. May He not make this Ramadan the last we witness, and if it is, then may we not leave this plain of existence without attaining His total forgiveness and mercy.

'Eid Mubarak. Taqabbala llaahu minnaa wa minkum.

© TIMEHIN SAHEED OLUROTIMI 

- Nigeria