Every believer has its own denomination and custom beliefs which in
turn will propel his activities in the holy period. Ramadhan is the holy month of
the Muslims where the Muslims fast for a period of 29 to 30 days .it usually
occurs in the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and it is during this period
where the Muslims avoid eating , drinking and even sexual activities. The Islamic
calendar is known as Islamic Junar and it is referred as fasting month . However,
these forbidden activities are only abstained from dawn until sunset after which
the they break the fast. Ramadhan has a very wide significance to the Muslim
beleivers which includes: Month in which the Quran was sent down by Allah for
benefit of mankind ,It is during this month where the blessed night of Lailatul Qadr falls within.
According to Al-Hurr al-A’meli ,Wasa’il ash-shi’ah vol.10, the term Ramadhan
literally means the burning heat of the sun and is given to the fasting month
since the fasting will burn the sins. However, according to some description,
Ramadhan is one of the names given to Allah and therefore recommended to use
‘The month of Ramadhan’ rather than just saying ‘Ramadhan’.
Events in the Ramadhan
Fasting is the major event in this period as described earlier that it is
beleived fasting will burn the sins. Fasting entails benefits and it is compulsory
and not an option to Islam since it is one of the pillars of Islam. Fasting is
observed in order to equalize the rich and the poor and thus Allah wanted to
equalize his rich and poor servants and give a feeling of hunger and pain to the
rich in order to understand the struggles their poor colleagues might have be going
through.
Fasting in the other hand is meant to keep self-restraint. According to the
Quran (2:183), fasting is prescribed for the beleivers in order for the Muslim to
their self-restrain and the Quran further describe that even the prophets of Islam
and the Imams need self-restrain. Fasting is the longest worshipping of God as daily
prayers will not even take more than one hour but the worshipping in this period of
Ramadhan take 12 to 16 hours .Fasting is the worshipping of God without involving
other activities not like daily prayers where worshipping and praying involves recitation
of some verses of the Quran. The fasting event involves consequences if it is not
adhered to including withdrawal of all promised rewards of fasting. According to Imam
As-Sadiq (a.s), any Muslim who does not adhere to fasting instructions has lost his
spiritual faith. According to Sheikh Mubarak Amhed in his article, “ Ramadhan and its
blessings”,( London publication), fasting is the best way to keep religious discipline and
train the soul and the flesh to strive in terms of crisis, anger and thirst. It is during
this month where the Muslims speak and eat little.
The event I attended is a Muslim event and observed more during this period. As
a Christian most of them varies with the ones observed in Christianity. The Muslims
pray in mosques while they have their knees down and heads to the floor. However,
there were some similarity concepts between this religion and some of Christian events.
According to Kidder (2017) Christians refer to God while the Muslim refer the same
omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent supernatural being as Allah. Both the two
religions believe that the supernatural being is the giver of life and He was the one
who created the universe. It is also evident in the Islamic and Christian texts that the
Almighty father is the one offering justice and also restores forgiveness among the
sinners.
Research from many Islamic and biblical narrations depicts that the two religions
believe that they are decendants of Abraham and both texts describe the time when God
called Abraham and put him in various test to show his perfection in faith. In both
religions, Abraham is accorded high standards of respect but the Muslims accord the
highest since they believe to be one of the most holy prophets. On the other hand,
Muslims and Christians believe in eternal life. According to McCall.com: Bethlehem’s
mix of Christians and Muslims it is described that the beleivers are recommended to
choose between the good and the evil, the righteous are promised eternal life while
those who do evil are promised a longer suffering. The two destinations are described
by the Christians as heaven and hell while Muslim refer to as jannah and jahannam.
The practices by the two religions also show that they differ in wide variety
of events. Christian events, they are divided in two categories: those which require
the involvement of a priest and those that does not necessarily require the involvement
of a priest. However, the case is totally different with that of Muslims in that Muslims
believe that they can reach to their God directly and does not need a channel. During
the prayer section in an event, the Muslim prayer is set on specified time of the
day according to their historic biblical roots and these prayer times are known as
canonical hours while in Christianity we offer prayers according to private or public
and with no specified prayer time in the day.
Fasting is also encountered by the two religions and the Muslim fast at
specific periods such as the event of Ramadhan while Christians just fast in their
personal wish. The two religions also differ in their aims of purity in that the
Christians avoid some practices in order to reinforce the poor and reduce greed while
the Muslims connects these to widen the issue of purity and empathize with the poor.
Therefore it will be of great sense to conclude that Christianity and Islam is of
brother faiths in that their similarities outweighs their differences.
References
Al-Hurr al-A’meli ,Wasa’il ash-shi’ah vol.10
Nicole Kidder (2017).
McCall. Com : Bethlehem’s mix of Christian and Muslims.
The Holy Quran (2:183).
Sheikh Mubarak Amhed ‘Ramadhan and its blessings’, publication London.
