Ramadan Series - Taqwa

 

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚃𝚊𝚚𝚠𝚊?  

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِۦ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ 

 surah Al Imran ayah 102

O believers! Be mindful of Allah in the way He deserves,1 and do not die except in ˹a state of full˺ submission ˹to Him˺.

 

Allah created us to worship him alone. He sent prophets to teach us the ways of worship at in every generation. To clarify the things that are allowed and the things that are forbidden for us . The person who recognises and does the acts that Allah wants us to do as muslims and who restricts himself from the acts that Allah has forbidden us to do has attained taqwa. Taqwa in a person is a proof that he recognised his creator and understood his greatness. ( that He is the all knowing, all hearing , All wise and He has power over everything) . With taqwa a person becomes conscious, he becomes responsible and becomes accountable to Allah. A person with Taqwa cannot lead a reckless life. He becomes aware of All his actions and tries to be a better person everyday. This quality of taqwa brings the person automatically closer to Allah. Such a person is also very conscious when he is dealing with people and so he is liked by people around him as well.

Allah loves those who have taqwa. Who are the people with taqwa? What are the things that are done to attain taqwa? 

In this ayah, the servants of Allah have been ordered to have taqwa, and are asked to be on that path till they die.

حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِۦ  follow the rules that Allah has prescribed and do not break the rules, and be grateful and not be ungrateful. Remember him always and do not forget Him. Protect ones tongue. 

A person does not know when he will die, it is not in his control. But what is in his control is how he will lead his life so he has to lead a life that is pleasing to Allah so that he can die in the state that is pleasing to Allah. As he will be in the same state when he will be raised from his grave. So may Allah guide us all to lead a life on Allah’s terms and be raised from the grave as an obedient servant.

Taqwa - arabic literal meaning is staying away from a thing and getting close to the other. Saving one self from the forbidden and getting closer to the rewards. Muttaqeen are the people who save them selves from sinning and thus Allah saves them from the punishment of the hellfire. 

Hazrat Ali RA said : A muttaqee parson is not persistent with his sins, when ever he sins he turns to Allah for forgiveness and then does not repeat the sin.    

Hazrat Umar RA said: a person cannot reach the level of taqwa until he stops doing things that disturbs his soul, that he is uncomfortable doing it. 

The world is full of attractions, distractions etc and we as muslims we should save ourselves from getting distracted or impressed by these worldly attractions and keep walking our straight path that leads us to jannah.

Muhammed saw said that taqwa stays in the heart. All our body parts listen to our heart. 

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Do not envy one another, and do not inflate prices for one another, and do not hate one another, and do not turn away from one another, and do not undercut one another in trade, but [rather] be slaves of Allah and brothers [amongst yourselves]. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not oppress him, nor does he fail him, nor does he lie to him, nor does he hold him in contempt. Taqwa (piety) is right here [and he pointed to his chest three times]. It is evil enough for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. The whole of a Muslim is inviolable for another Muslim: his blood, his property, and his honour.” [Muslim]

This Hadith shows us that nobody around us can judge our level of taqwa, onlyAllah knows. 

Taqwa is to saves one self from three acts, save oneself from the sins( acts that are haram), then from things that are disliked (makrooh) then the things that are useless (waste of time).    

Taqwa has been mentioned in the Quran in the beginning itself in Sarah baqarah ayah 2:

 

ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًۭى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ ٢

This is the Book! There is no doubt about it ,-a guide for those mindful ˹of Allah˺,

This shows the importance of people of taqwa. It is mandatory for us to have taqwa. All the prophets have instructed their people to be god conscious ( Muttaqeen ) .

Surah baqarah ayah 183 : يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may be God conscious.

In ramadan we should intend to increase our taqwa. Some of the ways we can increase our taqwa this Ramadan are: 

1. Reconnect with Allah: we can do this in many ways for eg: by doing all the obligatory prayers on time with sunnah prayers, try and understand the speech of Allah (one Ayah a day at least), keep our tongue moist with azkaar when we are physically busy, try to avoid wasting time on social media, show kindness, share your iftaar etc.
2. Fasting automatically increases our taqwa as we abstain from our desire to eat, drink, talk foul language etc. when one controls his desire for the sake of Allah , his taqwa increases as he is doing it just to please his creator. On the other hand our taqwa also increases in ramadan when we increase giving charity, we increase or ibada, control our worldly temptations etc.
3. Purify our intentions repeatedly, try to make fresh niyyah every time before giving charity, before cooking for your family, before any ibada etc.
4. Try to create a virtuous atmosphere in our homes and in our communities. Our children are watching our actions and will learn from it.   

May Allah increase our taqwa this Ramadan.