Learning About Ramadan Through The Quran
“So, you don’t eat anything throughout the day? No water either?” My five-year-old niece asked, gazing at me with her innocent eyes and naive understanding of what Ramadan is. I had just finished offering my prayers and I prayed to Allah to make Ramadan easy on us.
She mentioned how her teacher did brief the little students about Ramadan, but she had so much more to ask and her curious nature was full of unanswered questions.
In the Quran, Allah says; “and eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread. Then complete the fast until sunset”
I further explained to her, “Hence, no, from Fajr till Maghreb, we fast. Which means, no food and no water”.
I told her I’ll explain all about it at bedtime. Meanwhile, I decided to research a bit on this to explain better to her. I opened the Quran application on my phone and began to search a few verses which I could refer to. I marked them and read their translation, and I was surprised myself as to how beautifully Ramadan is detailed in Allah’s wording.
I took her to bed and began, “Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Like I told you, we don’t eat from the time we hear the Athan when the sun rises, until the time, we see that the moon is about to come out”.
She listened to me attaining pin drop silence with such concentration and unexpectedly asked; “But, why?”
“It’s what Allah SWT wants us to do. We obey him. But you know, our health becomes so much better, and we become really close to our Almighty Allah”.
She had just started the Qaidah, so I told her that I’m going to recite some verses from the Quran about Ramadan.
“…But to fast is best for you, if you only knew.” — Surat Al-Baqarah 2:184
Here, Allah tells you about all the benefits of fasting. It’s the best for us. It helps make our brain work faster, cleanses our body, our eating habits become better and we learn how to be patient.
“Ramadan is the month in which was sent down the Quran” — Surah Al-Baqarah 2:185
You know it was the holy month of Ramadan, in which the Quran was sent down to mankind. For us to recite, follow and learn guidance from Allah.
I told her that when she’ll start recitation of the Quran daily and when she reads the translation a lot of this will be more understandable. As she fell asleep, I lay in bed with her just thinking to myself how complex it was for me to explain to her a concept that we practice every year.
In such less span of time that’s all I could research over and explain to her, but I learnt that we can’t explain our young ones to practice something that we adults don’t hold much knowledge over. That moment I made it an aim to recite Quran daily with translation. It’s so important to preach what we want them to practice.
I told everyone at home that it’s essential for us to incorporate daily Quranic recitation in our lives not just to set an example for them but also to learn and provide them with detailed explanations for their inquisitive minds. It’s our role to ensure that they have the best of both worlds…
