‘The Fast Of Ramadan’: A Prescription For Healing And Guarding Against Evil

[Editor’s note: The following message was delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on the first day of the Holy Month of Ramadan observance during the Ramadan Prayer Line teleconference, Monday, June 6, 2016. The Month of Ramadan is the 9th month of the lunar calendar in which Muslims are prescribed fasting as an obligation upon those that have reached puberty and can physically fast without causing medical difficulty. Observers of Ramadan are to refrain from the consumption of food, drink and the urge of sexual desires with their husbands or wives during the daylight hours. The Ramadan Fast also requires one to guard oneself from immoral conduct to break bad habits, remove the blemishes of sin, character flaws, and purify our hearts, minds and actions. For more information on the #RamadanPrayerLine, be sure to follow Minister Farrakhan through his official social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @LouisFarrakhan).]

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-’alamin. Ar-Rahman ar-Rahim… I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger.

I thank Allah The Most High for His mercy and His grace, and His intervention in the affairs of the Black man and woman of North America, who have been the victims of European wickedness in the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade, and who were made slaves, chattel slaves, for 310 years, stripped of many things that would connect us to our original land and people—names and language and history and culture, religion and God, taken away from us, that we might be slaves and tools of White Supremacy. And even after slavery, all kinds of machinations and schemes were plotted against the freedom of the Black man and woman of America, slave codes and sharecropping and all kinds of devices to keep us in a subservient state.

But I thank Almighty God Allah for His merciful intervention in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi, Who came among us and searched among us for one on whom He could place a weighty mission, and give him weighty words that might awaken “The Sleeping Giant”: The Black Man in America, the Black Man in the Caribbean, the Black Man in Africa; the Brown, the Red, the Yellow who have been victims of White Supremacy. But we are grateful to Allah that we are on the path of Islam. The path of Islam is the path of obedience to the Will of Allah. Complete submission to His Will is what makes us Muslims.

We are not Muslims by a book! We are not Muslims by a declaration of faith! We are Muslims by nature, made in the Nature of God Himself. It is the nature of His creation to submit to the law under which it was created; it is the Nature of God to create laws, and bow down to His own laws! And He made us like unto Himself and gave us His Nature, which is Islam.

I greet all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, with the greeting words of peace, As-Salaam Alaikum! And I say to all of you: Ramadan Mubarak.

I am so grateful to Sister Nisa Islam, and all of those who are a part of this wonderful prayer line. I am so proud of the 10 years that you have labored to create this prayer line designed to overcome the barriers between various communities of Islam, and bring us together during this Holy Month of Ramadan that we might heal each other. And know that our differences may seem great, but Allah says in The Qur’an He will settle the difference between us as Muslims.

It is a grievous time for the Muslim world, but Ramadan, if we perform it as it should be performed, will bring us all closer to Allah, closer to each other.

*** *** ***

What is this fast called “The Fast of Ramadan”? In this hot month … Oh, it is so difficult in these, the longest days of the year, to fast from dark to dark, from sunrise to sunset—no water, no food, abstaining from sexual relations with our husbands and wives, refraining from argument and disputation; praising Almighty God Allah, The Originator of the heavens and the earth, for sending this Book Qur’an into the world through His chosen vessel, Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah, peace and blessings be upon him. A Book of Conversation from a Master to His student! So every Ramadan we have a chance to enter The Classroom of Allah, to read His words that He gave to His servant that have become abook.

It was not a “book” in the beginning; it was verses of a book … I thank Allah for The Companions of The Prophet. I thank Allah for those who came together, who put The Qur’an under its arrangement in the present form under the guidance of Allah. Today, we have a Book to read. Today, we have a Conversation to try to understand that will bring us into The Circle of Divine. We can say today that God is speaking to us just as He spoke to Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah, peace be upon him.

We are now engaged in the reading of this Book over 30 nights/30 days, 30 sections of this Qur’an, that after the 30 days are over, by Allah’s Grace we shall have read this Book from cover to cover, we shall have bathed ourselves in the words of Allah. And we pray that Allah will open our hearts, our minds, to feed on His Words.

The Prophet was shocked in the cave when he heard the first words of this Qur’an: He was trembling over the sound; that Allah put His words in the ear of The Prophet—but not only in his ear, but in his heart. So dear beloved Believers, in this time of trouble I pray that our hearts will be in tune with the heart of The Prophet who received these words. And we ponder these words; and ask Allah to give us insight into these words, that these words are not just words that we read but words that become a part of us—as this Qur’an became a part of the very being of The Prophet.

O Allah, thank You for this Book! Thank You for this servant through whom You gave the entire world a final revelation that will take us up to and through The Judgment of this present world. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad added a few words to this ayat (Surah 1:3) of The Qur’an: “…the Day of Judgment”—and he added “in which we now live.”

Brothers and sisters, we only need to look at the condition of the human family, the condition of the nations of the world, the condition of our own selves and family to know that in a time of judgment where whatever we have sown, whatever we have sent forth, will come back to us in this day. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us “justice” is not only the principle of fair dealing, “justice” is not only the law that distinguishes between right and wrong, “justice,” now, is a Weapon in the Hand of God to reward and [reprove] as we have deserved. Now The Forces of Nature are unleashed in every part of our planet … World confusion; rain like we’ve never seen rain, snow like we’ve never seen snow; hail and sleet, heat and cold, like we’ve never known it! And the worst is yet to come. So this prayer line is a blessing to us all.

In our reading of the [third juz’ (part)] of The Qur’an, we will come to a verse that reads: “O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may guard against evil.” (Surah 2:283) This is why we fast! This is why we abstain from the necessary and vital things of life, food and water, and that which procreates life, during the daylight hours: If we can make it one day to not drink water, not eat food, which is so natural, so necessary to life, surely we then can guard against the evil of lying, stealing, slander, backbiting, fornication, adultery, fighting, arguing and killing one another. The evils that fasting causes us to guard against are what the whole world is experiencing right now! Surely man is in loss… But during this Holy Month, let us strive to fulfill what The Fast is designed for: It’s a prescription from The Lord of the worlds to guard us against the doing of evil.

*** *** ***

May Allah bless each and every one of us to fast. If it becomes so difficult that you feel you can’t make it, ask Allah for strength. We know it is difficult, particularly for the new Believers who have come to Islam and now are being tried by this wonderful fast. The Qur’an teaches us that Allah desires ease for us … In this difficult month, if you can make it, what a joy! But the Honorable Elijah Muhammad asked us to fast, as new Believers, in the month of December which has the shortest days of the year—and even that was difficult for us when we were learning to fast. So I pray that Allah will bless each and every one of us who try; make it one day, then ask Allah to help you to make it two days, three days, four days, five days! And before you know it, [the] strength that you will build up within yourself to guard against evil: at the end of this 30 days we will be a better human being. And if we miss a day, or two, we should find someone to feed; we should give something to the poor and the needy. But we should try, in this month, to make the world that we live in a better place.

Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for allowing me these few moments of time. I greet you all with the greeting words of peace: As-Salaam Alaikum.