Those who minimize the burden of those in their employ (mulkul yameen)...

Those who minimize the burden of those in their employ (mulkul yameen), The Lord shall make their reckoning easy. He who checks his transgression, Allah shall withhold His wrath from him on the Day of Judgement. Whoever shuns his kinsmen, Allah shall deny him His mercy on the Day of Reckoning. He who recites just one verse of the Holy Qur’an, during this month, Allah shall grant him the reward of having recited the whole Book in other months”.

No sooner had my father finished relating those segments of the Prophet’s sermon, he criticised the behaviour of some fasting Muslims who mistakenly believe that fasting is abstaining from food and drink per se. To refute such belief, he quoted Imam Ali (a.s.) as saying, “There is many a fasting man who yields nothing from his fast other than thirst. And how many a worshipper whose night prayer gains him nothing but stress”.

He related another hadith from Imam as-Sadiq (a.s.), “ When you fast, make sure that your hearing, seeing, hair, skin, and all your faculties refrain (from that which is incompatible with fasting). The Imam was also reported as saying, “Fasting should not be confined to abstaining from food and drink. You should restrain your tongues from telling lies, cast your eyes away from that which Allah has ordained not to be looked at. Do not engage in conflict. Do not envy each other.

Do not backbite, swear at or curse one another. Avoid giving false testimony. Be like one who is anticipating to move to the next world, counting in the process your days, waiting for that which God Almighty has promised you, and always taking stock of your deeds in anticipation of having audience with Him. Take to God-inspired peace of mind and dignified bearing; take to submissiveness and humility - the submissiveness of a slave, fearing his master”.

My father told me a story that took place at the time of the Prophet (s.a.w.). The Prophet (s.a.w.) heard a woman calling her maid names. He called for food to be served to her. She said that she was fasting. He said to her, “Why are you fasting when you have just called your maid names? Fasting is not simply abstaining from food and drink. It is a means of refraining from committing sins by word and deed. How scarce genuine fasting is and how abundant hunger”.

* I felt so humble and said to my father, “It is time I should fast the month of Ramadhan, and I shall start this year. However, what is the way to knowing that the month has started”?