Ramadan resolutions

Also published in Daily Trust

Towards the end of each year, many people conceive certain personal ambitions, which they intend to pursue and hope to achieve during the New Year. While some people intend to get rid of certain habits, which they believe to be hindering their efforts to achieve their goals, some others adopt some new habits or approach, which they believe would improve their chances of achieving their goals. In any case, these ambitions are commonly referred to as New Year’s resolutions, which some people write down while others simply keep them in their minds.

Also though people differ in the extent of their individual dedication to pursue their resolutions, it’s obvious that the idea itself is borne out of the realization of how time factor, to a large extent, dictates the course of our individual and collective endeavours and indeed determines the degree of success we achieve or setbacks we suffer in the process. After all, time is perhaps the only factor that can’t be manipulated hence the necessity to make good use of it all the time.

Moreover, in addition to dedication and commitment in pursuing the resolutions, it’s noteworthy that the prospect of accomplishing them is also determined by the extent of logic and pragmatism that characterize them and also the degree of precision and creative flexibility that define the method adopted in pursuing them, even though the factor of luck, which is in any case beyond anybody’s control plays an important role also.

Anyway, as the month of Ramadan draws closer and indeed commences in the next few days, Muslims get increasingly inspired by the opportunity it provides to improve their sense of piety as individuals and communities, in a way that to some extent, resembles the way many people look forward to pursuing and achieving some specific goals during New Year.

However, just as in pursuing New Year’s resolutions, there are certain factors that determine one’s success to attain piety during the month of Ramadan, which may differ from one person to another according to people’s individual abilities, and also the nature and extent of their individual spiritual deficiencies, which they would want to address during the month. This therefore underlines the need for every individual to identify his particular major weak points and work steadily but dedicatedly during the month of Ramadan to address them.

This is particularly imperative in view of the fact that many people get excessively inspired at the beginning of the month of Ramadan and literally seek to instantly transform into saints of sorts, only to start slacking off after some days and perhaps even relapse towards the end of the month for that matter, when Muslims are expected to generate the amount of spiritual momentum necessary to enable them attain the most precious blessing of the month i.e. the Pleasure of Allah the Almighty.

In any case, notwithstanding Muslims’ personal circumstances as individuals, which are supposed to determine their respective approach to the pursuit of piety during the month of Ramadan as I pointed out earlier, and in order to gradually and consistently grow spiritually and most importantly attain and maintain a sustainable spiritual momentum, every Muslim individual must thoroughly re-examine his motivation to ensure that whatever he does is defined by perfect sincerity of intention i.e. Al-ikhlas.

This is because during Ramadan in particular many people unconsciously fall into the satanic trap of riyaa i.e. showing off their good deeds thereby losing the rewards they are supposed to earn and indeed incurring serious sins instead. Besides, in terms of how an individual gets rid of certain negative habits during the month of Ramadan, he should first of all identify and target the most serious ones with a view to repenting and quitting them once and for all. His sincerity and commitment will determine whether he will succeed or not, for he will actually only be deceiving himself if he isn’t absolutely sincere and committed enough to quit and repent. 

Certainly despite the huge socio-political and economic challenges bedevilling Nigeria, the spirit of Ramadan, if actually respected by the fasting Muslims, is enough to considerably turn things around on the ground. Though not all Nigerians are Muslims yet I am sure that if all or at least a considerable percentage of Nigerian Muslims working in various federal, states and local government establishments and institutions decide to shun corrupt practices during the month of Ramadan and stick to due process in discharging their duties, things would significantly begin to improve quite dramatically.

As a matter of fact, the situation will be even much better if this spirit is respected by top government executives and lawmakers at various levels of government, for they will not only instantly inspire their subordinates but they will also revive hope and confidence in the future of Nigeria at large, which have literally evaporated.

Having said the foregoing, I am not in any way pleading with such officials to shun corruption; instead I am simply presenting my humble advice to them, for I realize that it’s in their interest in the first place. After all, one wonders the point of observing Ramadan fast by someone who can’t restrain himself from looting public resources, worse still, when he uses such loot to sponsor himself and others to Umrah in Saudi Arabia and/or engages in charity works and other acts of generosity to the poor.