Reviving faith to bring back hope

Halfway through the holy month of Ramadhan, most people would have adapted to the changes and might even form the good changes as habits.

The act of worship is much more during this month as it includes, in addition to prayers and fasting, refraining from negative thoughts and deeds. They are beyond physical acts, including anything that would violate the fasting or the act of worship.

Saif al Raheili, an active speaker at Sultan Qaboos Islamic Information Centre, explained that the experience of Ramadhan actually fixes your soul and your body at the same time.

“And this is exactly what is mentioned in the Holy Quran. When you fast, it is better for you because this is an opportunity as it is a group act. Everyone is doing it, so it becomes easier for you to follow, and then you can proceed with the other months with the same concept’’, explained Al Raheili.

So the month of Ramadhan is totally a journey of body, mind and soul.

“This is the month when Muslims are kind to the poor and concentrate on their actions as they want Allah to accept this act of worship. So they are trying to give as much as they can towards humanity to prove that they are good believers and good slaves to Allah’’, he explained.

While the world goes through confusion and stress as nations or individuals, there seems to be a lack of faith. “Absolutely. The lack of faith is lacking in the promise that Allah will meet you one day. And he has promised that he will not let go of whatever you have done as good’’, said Al Raheili

So when you do that good, you become impatient with the challenges you face in this life, or you are working towards the giving aspect such as giving money, giving knowledge or giving the community whatever you can to participate in improving the society. This you cannot do unless you have a promise, and that promise is meeting the One who has asked you to do this because you are expecting a reward.”

This actually, he explained, gives one the hope that whatever a person has done is not going away.

So is there a way to bring back hope? Because people are losing resilience and give up easily these days. And how can we bring back hope?

“So bringing back hope means you need to reconstruct or rebuild your relationship. It is like a relation, as a slave to God. So you need to declare yourself as a slave. That is first, and you need to get rid of the titles that you entitled yourself with so you can become something else.

And this gives some calmness to yourself. And that’s the start. Once you declare yourself as a slave, you will not feel that difficult to follow the commands one by one. Until you are actually improving yourself, like on a ladder you take step by step and remove whatever there is like fear, depression and so on.”

According to Al Raheili, all of this will go away when you are actually rising closer to the relationship.

@lakshmioman