The Holy Month of Ramadhan

Ramadhan is the name of the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar and it is a holy month best known as the month of fasting, sawm, and the month in which the Qur'an was revealed. This year the lunar month of Ramadhan begins around Saturday 21 July 2012 and ends a month later around Saturday 18 August 2012. The end of the holy month of Ramadhan is marked by a celebration known as Eid al-Fitr.

"The Holy Prophet Muhammed (SAW) said:
O' People! Surely, the month of God has approached you. The month which, in the eyes of Allah, is the most virtuous of months. Its days are the best of days and its nights, the best of the nights and its moments, the best of moments."

The holy month of Ramadhan is often used as a month in which the believer renews and increases their spiritual connection with God by praying more recommended prayers, reciting more verses of the Qur'an, giving more charity and refraining from doing sins and seeking repentance for past sins. But the month of Ramadhan is different from the other holy months because it is a month where fasting is a requirement.

"O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint (taqwa)" [The Qur'an 2:183]

Fasting is refraining from food, drink and sexual activity during day-light hours, from dawn till dusk. Fasting during this month is mandatory for adults but not for youngsters, the aged, the sick, the frail, people who are travelling, women who are pregnant, nursing their newborn child or in their menses. The purpose of fasting is not hardship but spiritual development, teaching perseverance, self-control and self-discipline. Not observing the fast or intentionally breaking the fast before sun-down is considered a big sin.

Each day during the month of Ramadhan, when the sun goes down, a Muslim can then stop fasting. This is often termed "breaking the fast" or iftar in Arabic. Muslims often visit family and friends during the month but they also try to attend their local mosque which serves a meal (futoor) as part of its nightly program, which often includes recitation from the holy Qur'an, mandatory prayers (maghrib and 'ishaa) that are recited after sun-down, the main meal, maybe a lecture or lessons in the rules of Islam, maybe a supplication or two and recommended prayers.

After finishing for the night, people go home and have some food and drink water - observe the suhoor - during the night before the sun comes up again, in preparation for the next day of fasting. This is highly recommended and it makes fasting easier.

The month of Ramadhan is the most popular month of the year and Muslims look forward to it as it brings together family, friends and the community and they can worship and observe the tenants of their religion together. Furthermore, this month God increases the virtues (thawab) of acts of worship and good deeds so a good deed done in this month has greater weight than the same one done in other months and Muslims are advised to take this opportunity and blessing.

"The Holy Prophet Muhammed (SAW) said:
This month of yours (Ramadhan) is unlike the other months. Surely, when it approaches you (begins), it does so with blessings and mercy and when it turns away from you (ends), it does so with forgiveness of sins. This is a month in which good deeds are multiplied and acts of goodness are accepted."

Muslims use this month as a month to change and improve themselves in, turn over a new leaf and become better Muslims and better people for the rest of the year and the rest of their lives. Each Ramadhan is taken as an opportunity to increase one's spiritual level with them aim of self purification and the final goal of attaining a high station in heaven in the hereafter.

Futoor

Futoor is the name given to a meal eaten at the end of a day of fasting during the month of Ramadhan. The action of eating and drinking to end the fast is called iftar while the meal itself, the food and drink eaten to break the fast, is called futoor.

Suhoor

Suhoor (Arabic: سحور lit. of the dawn‎), also called Sehur, Sehri, Sahari and Sahur in other languages, is an Islamic term referring to the meal consumed early in the morning by Muslims before fasting, sawm, in daylight hours during the Islamic month of Ramadan. The meal is eaten before fajr, or dawn.[1] Suhoor as the morning meal is matched by Iftar as the evening meal, during Ramadan, replacing the traditional three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner),[2] although in some places dinner is also consumed after Iftar later during the night. Being the only meal eaten by Muslims from dawn to sunset during the month of Ramadan, Suhoor typically tends to be heavy and is highly regarded by Islamic traditions to benefit of the blessings and avoid crankiness or weakness caused by the fast.

REWARDS FOR TARAWEEH DURING RAMADHAN...

1st Night: Almighty Allah forgives all the sins of a mumin.

2nd Night: Your sins including your (mumin) Father's and Mother's sins are
forgiven.

3rd Night: Below the Arash (Allah's throne) there an angel proclaims, "O
Momin, make good deeds with sincerity, Allah has forgiven your past sins!

4th Night: You are awarded the sawaab of reading the Thaurat, Injeel,Zaboor
and the Quran Majid.

5th Night: You get sawaab equal to that which you would gain if you read
your namaaz (prayers)in Masjid Haram, Medina Muna-wara and Masjid Aksa.

6th Night: You gain the sawaab of the Tawaaf made by the 70 000 angels made
at Baitul-Mamoor on the 7th sky.

7th Night: You receive the sawaab of those good people who helped Moosa
A.S.
when he fought Firon and Haman.

8th Night: The reward of the 8th Tharawee are equal to the sawaab awarded
to
Ebrahim A.S.

9th Night: The rewards of this night of Tharawee are equivalent to the
sawaab awarded to our Holy Prophet Mohammed S.A.W. (P.B.O.H).

10th Night: Allah proclaims for you all the best in the world.

11th Night: The reward of this night is that when a momin leaves this
world,
he goes with faith ("Imaan").

12th Night: On the day of resurrection you will appear with a face with so
much lustre ("noor") on it, as much as the lustre of the 14th moon.

13th Night: On the day of resurrection you will be protected from evil.

14th Night: On the day of resurrection the Malaaika (Angels) will be
witnesses for the Tharawee you are performing. On this evidence Allah will
grant your entry into Paradise without account.

15th Night: All the Malaaikas, the Hoorlaa and the Arsh-wa-Kursie (Allah's
throne), plead for you before Allah for his mercy.

16th Night: Allah gives instructions: A. To free you from hell; B. To allow
you to enter paradise.

17th Night: Allah grants you the sawaab of the Ambiaas.

18th Night: On this night an angel announces that Allah is happy with you,
and with your parents.

19th Night: The reward for this night is that Allah makes your position
greater in paradise.

20th Night: On this night Allah rewards you by granting to you the sawaab
of
the martyred and the pious.

21st Night: Allah Ta'aala on this night builds a house with lustre ("noor")
for you in paradise.

22nd Night: On the resurrection ground you will arrive duly freed from
sorrow and worry.

23rd Night: On this night Allah makes a garden for you in paradise.

24th Night: On this night Allah grants twenty-four duas (wishes).

25th Night: Allah lifts his punishment from your grave.

26th Night: Allah Ta'aala increases for you the sawaab of 40 years.

27th Night: The rewards for this night of Tharawee are that you will be
able
to cross the Pul-Sirat (bridge) like lightning.

28th Night: Your position in paradise is increased by one stage.

29th Night: Allah Ta'aala grants the sawaab of 1000 "makbul" (accepted)Haj.

30th Night: By performing this night of Tharawee you would be one of the
many persons who, on the day of resurrection will hear Allah Ta'aala say in
paradise, "Eat whichever fruit you like to eat, bath with the water of
Salaalil; and drink the Kauser water! I am thy Lord and you are my person!"
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08-04-2008, 06:17 PM

Ramadhan Kareem!

Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 0r 30 days according to the visual sightings of the crescent moon. It is the Muslim month of fasting, in which Muslims refrain from dawn until sunset from eating, drinking and sexual relations.
The sawab (rewards) of fasting are many, but in this month, they are believed to be multiplied.

Ramadan Mubarak!
( means " Have a blessed Ramadan " )