e orgoen rues o

uoor Iftaar

By Alomgir Ali (Tayyibun Institute)

During the Month of

Ramadhan

I am sure we are allaccustomed to hearing aboutthe virtues of

Ramadhan

, theQur’an and fasting etc.However, it is rare to hearabout the virtues of twoimportant aspects of fasting that we seldom do rememberabout their spiritualsignificance;

suhoor & iftaar.

For many of us,

iftaar & suhoor

is not a spiritualexperience, rather it is simplya means to only fill ourstomachs. In this brief articleI would like to mention someof the important Prophetictraditions related to these twoaspects of our fast and theirsignificance.In one Hadith theProphet (saw): “The one whofasts has two moments of happiness: when he breaks hisfast and when he meets hisLord.” (Bukhari). Thescholars commented on thisnarration saying that thishappiness is a naturalhappiness due to the removalof his hunger and thirst.However, there is anotherreason why the believersshould be happy as well.Namely that they were ableto complete this great act of worship and that they arepleased that they are fulfilling the commandment of thetheir Lord in breaking theirfast. In fact the Prophet (saw)said:“Indeed Allah is happywith his servant when he eatshe praises Allah.” Therefore,when a person eats whilstbeing grateful, he will becomedelighted at the prospect that Allah (swt) will be happy withhim. The Prophet (saw) alsosaid: “The one who eats andis grateful is on the same levelas the one who fasts and ispatient.” (Bukhari&Tirmidhi, Albani:

Saheeh

THE FORGOTTEN

VIRTUES

The Prophet (saw)said: “How good isthe date for the

suhoor

of a believer”

R A M A D H A N 1 4 3 0