Ramadan Prepares Us for Hajj

Some of the qualities of a good Muslim character are patience, restraint, humility, gratitude and trust in Allah.  Muslims need to develop these and other good qualities in order to try to please Allah during Ramadan and at hajj.  Ramadan offers Muslims the opportunity to develop these aspects of good character even as we fast and pray for forgiveness during this sacred month. The benefit is that we are then able to draw upon these qualities as we need them during hajj.

Part of success in Ramadan is in learning patience.  We must be patient as the minutes and hours tick by when we feel we are too hungry or too thirsty or too hot or too cold or too tired to get through the day.  We must be patient with the month as a whole, accepting and submitting to the entire process of Ramadan as a time of seeking purification and forgiveness.

O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may learn self-restraint. (Quran 2:183)

We learn to exercise restraint during Ramadan whenever we must strive to keep our temper and say, “I am fasting.  I am fasting.  I am fasting” when someone annoys us.  We practice the  Islamic traditions of saying, “I seek refuge from Shaitan” and “Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem” when we find ourselves getting angry.   We may walk away, sit or lie down, keep silent, or make wudu.  All of those are ways of avoiding losing our temper when fasting.  We also exercise restraint in keeping our passion for our spouses in check for the entire month except from Maghrib until Fajr.  In the case of either anger or sexual desire, Muslims restrain their impulses to act in a manner that is inappropriate to the fast.

During Ramadan we remember to be humble before Allah when we are too ill to fast.  And we remember to be grateful to Allah during such time for giving us ease in our religion.  We learn to be how humility and gratitude go hand in hand when breaking our fast at the end of a particularly difficult day.  At that moment, we remember that we are helpless and humble before Allah, without Whom we would not have food to eat.  At that moment, we are sincerely grateful to Allah for each drop of water and each morsel of food.

We learn to increase our trust in Allah during in Ramadan.  No one is watching every moment when we have the opportunity to eat or drink during the day, particularly when the fast becomes hard.  Yet instead of disobediently breaking fast ahead of time, we remember to call on Allah for strength, for ease, for help in getting us through to the end of the day.  In other words, we are trusting in Allah to sustain us through periods of difficulty.

For Hajj are the months well known. If any one undertakes that duty therein, Let there be no obscenity, nor wickedness, nor wrangling in the Hajj, and whatever good you do, be sure God knows it. And take a provision With you for the journey, but the best of provisions is right conduct. So fear Me, o you that are wise.  (Quran 2:197)

If we conduct ourselves properly during Ramadan, all of these qualities are strengthened.  When we go to hajj, we can draw on each of these qualities that Allah has allowed us to develop within ourselves, for during hajj all of these qualities will be tried and tested.  We must exercise patience during all phases of travel whether by foot or train or plane or boat or car.  We often need to restrain our anger, however justified, when dealing with hotels, with roommates, with relatives, with authorities, with strangers and with friends.  We rediscover our humility whenever we see the Kaaba, when we circle it, and while fulfilling all of the rites of hajj.  We are grateful then, too, because Allah has called us to His House–an invitation He does not extend to all Muslims.  Over and over again we find that we must trust in Allah to provide for us what we need during the hajj–often when we don’t know or recognize our need ourselves.

Ramadan is an excellent time to train these qualities within us.  To be sure, these are not the only elements of sound and good character in a Muslim–charity, honesty, compassion and many other things go into the making.   But we can be grateful to Allah that He allows us to the chance to prepare for one pillar of our faith–hajj by adhering to the requirements of another pillar–Ramadan. For while we are fasting, we should be mindful that the large and small tests that fill the days of Ramadan also help us build some of the sound elements of character necessary for a hajj with which Allah may be pleased.

For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast and deny themselves, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in God’s praise, for them has God prepared forgiveness and great reward.  (Quran 33:35)