English

Realization of God, maarifah is the essence of religion. God-realization is the spirit of Islam, it is the life of Islam. It makes one’s Islam a living thing. The action done with God-realization is like a green tree, whereas any action without God-realization is like dried up wood. Islam begins with the discovery or realization, maarifah of the existence of God and the realization of one’s relation with God. Another name for this discovery is faith, iman in God. Whenever one receives this kind of faith, it necessarily begins to express itself in his life.

In the book, Re-Planning of the Islamic Mission in Modern Times, the author Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that life is replete with unfavourable situations. Successful is one who is able to discover favourable opportunities from unfavourable experiences and re-plan his course of action by accepting his mistakes and learning from them, to wring success out of failure. Re-planning can be called planning plus. Re-planning means adding experiences to previous planning and planning one’s actions anew in the light of new information.

In the book, Spirit of Ramadan, the author Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that fasting in the month of Ramadan is a living creative process. Fasting aims to make man’s life a roza-oriented life. The purpose of fasting is to make one cautious in life (2:183) and to make one thankful to God (2:185). The spirit of Ramadan is abstinence, to put a curb on one’s desires. During the month of Ramadan one abstains from one’s desires like thirst and hunger as per compulsion, to learn to put a curb on other desires as per our intention.

In the book Ramadan: A Month of Purification Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that saum, the Arabic word for fasting means abstinence. Ramadan entails fostering of a culture of abstinence. Prophet Muhammad said, “There is purification for all things, and purification of the body is fasting.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 1745) Just as bathing purifies the body, so does fasting purify the soul. Fostering a culture of abstinence means cutting oneself off from the world and turning one's heart and mind continually to God.