Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Encountering Some Difficult Questions Despite countless sermons and FAQ sessions during Ramadan, a few basic questions remain to be clarified and it seems most Muslims have yet to know the secret or key of the whole thing from fasting to iʿtikāf to laylat al-qadr and, one fears, that is why they only experience hunger and thirst and not proximity to God. Such questions include why is there, generally speaking, silence in the Quran/traditions regarding any punishment for those who though believe fasting as one of the pillars of Islam routinely fail to fast or who never fast (as against very clear elaborate descriptions about those who miss prayer/zakat) – we find promise of reward and call for fasting but silence on corresponding threat of punishment for missing without any excuse? There is a special gate reserved for those who fast in Heaven but none in hell for those who miss it. Very few note that God doesn’t hold us accountable for not offering tarawih in congregation routinely...

Itikaaf is especially a time for waiting as is the whole idea of seeking shab-i-qadr We all know that Ramazan has been characterized as “month of patience.” What does it mean? Today we seek to understand how patience, or what we may call waiting, is what essentially characterizes human destiny and how proper waiting constitutes a great wazeefa for proper living. Understanding our destiny as patiently waiting for Darsha n or Deedar , for the Friend or more precisely seeing Deedar in waiting, will answer such questions that are commonly asked during this month such as why God doesn’t come and why our rendezevous with Satan doesn’t seem to end. Itikaaf is especially a time for waiting as is the whole idea of seeking shab-i-qadr (We are subtly told to wait for it as its time isn’t strictly specified). Paul Tillich in one of his sermons,collected under the title The Shaking of the Foundations , has insightfully appropriated the metaphor of waiting in explicating the Semitic religious...