Assess Your Piety before the End of Ramadan

Muhammad Abdullah Javed
June 3, 2019

Before the completion of the blessed month, Ramadan, its last few days provide you with an exceptional opportunity to assess and test the quantum of Taqwa and apply its power. Yes, we are talking about that Taqwa which has been nourished with days of fastings and prayers.

This could be one of the most relevant questions to seek for, isn’t it? But to know its answer a parameter is quite essential as the vastness of Taqwa doesn’t permit us to guess and strive vaguely for its assessment. The Quran presents a verse which is quietly justifiable to what we are looking for:

And be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord and to a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-fearing. (Surah Aal-e-Imran: 133)

Just look at the verse, it speaks of a speedy action. For the assessment of Taqwa it specifies “speed” and “goal”.

The Speed – Why speed is needed? Why can’t a person accomplish the task with his own routine? There can be two justifiable answers; one, by virtue of fastings and prayers the person has succeeded in getting loads of good qualities and the speedy action is just to test how far those qualities are true to their formation. Second, to move from a place, energy is required. If the place happens to be powerful, large amount of energy is needed. You can raise your feet from the ground with ease but the same doesn’t hold good when the ground is sticky. Again, look at the way an object is put into space. To get rid of earth’s gravitational pull, the object needs to escape from earth’s atmosphere with a velocity greater than the gravitational pull that comes around 11 km per second. Any object with less speed will fall back on the ground as we see the stone thrown up falls back.

So you need to be quick else the ground will pull you back. Your ground is quite sticky with its own lavish preferences, unfulfilled dreams and unfinished desires. The Quran clearly states that the under-performance of a person and his idleness is for the same reason:

O Believers! What is amiss with you that when it is said to you: “March forth in the cause of Allah”, you stick heavily to the earth? Do you prefer the worldly life to the Hereafter? (Surah At-Tauba: 38)

The Goal – It’s a pillar that acts as a reference point to gauge the direction and speed, it stimulates a person to motivate himself for the achievement. Here, the lofty goal — “forgiveness of the Lord” and the “paradise” has all the attractions to enhance a person’s motivation and speed to the maximum extent.

The days of Fast and Qiyam must have ensured the required fuel and passion in you to register greater speed and get rid of the worldly pleasure for attaining Allah’s forgiveness and Jannah. Stand up on your toes; just check your amount of fuel and speedometer. Few days left, energize yourself to the maximum as you need to maintain that greater-speed for the rest of eleven months to be an epitome of Taqwa.

 

The author is the Director of AJ Academy For Research and Development, Raichur, Karnataka. He can be reached at [email protected]

Comments

Asifuddin Qhaize
 - 
Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Alhamdulillaha We will be thankful to Allah for Making us Enter in this Blessed Month of Ramadan. Now we have to Make the most of this blessed month.

Jazakallaha

Abdullah Javeed Sahab

 

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coastaldigest.com web desk
June 9,2020

With the steep hike in excise duty in the past couple of months, an average consumer of petrol now pays over 275% in taxes to centre and states on a litre of the fuel.  The base price of petrol is just about Rs 18. The taxes are close to Rs 50 and the pump price is over Rs 72.

India imports 85% of all its crude oil demand.  After a steep hike in excise duty in the past two months despite a hold on daily price revisions by the oil public sector undertakings (PSUs), Indian consumers now pay 275% collectively in excise duty to state and centre. 

The central government hiked excise on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 and Rs 13 respectively last month. The excise duty on petrol is taxed around Rs 33-a-litre while the same on diesel it is Rs 32.

The Value-Added Tax (VAT) on both petrol and diesel is Rs 16.44 and Rs 16.26 respectively. Both the taxes together are around Rs 49 while it is sold at petrol pumps at 73-per-litre.

These two taxes cumulatively account for 69% of tax which is higher than anywhere else in the world. The same is taxed at 19% in the US, 47% in Japan, UK 62% and 63% in France. The government does not pass on the benefit of lower crude oil prices to the customer.

It is to be noted that Indian consumers continued to pay Rs 70-a-litre even when crude oil prices hit a paltry US $ 20-a-barrel on April 12.

Former finance minister and Congress leader recently took a jab at the Centre over rising prices stating, “Fuel selling prices raised twice in two days, following tax hikes two weeks ago. This time to benefit oil companies. Government is poor, it needs more taxes. Oil companies are poor, they need better prices. Only the poor and middle class are not poor, so they will pay”.

Comments

Lovely indian
 - 
Wednesday, 10 Jun 2020

Acche din for modi bakth....lets enjoy

 

you need only ram mandir and NRC

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News Network
January 16,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 16: It was necessary to revise rates under the ECHS, CGHS and GIPSA schemes for private hospitals to be able to sustain, doctors from private hospitals have opined.

Under the banner of the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), doctors from top private hospitals in the city spoke about the dues pending from the union government schemes. They said they could not give a deadline as to when they would stop offering the scheme.

In a press release issued here on Thursday association said, which had previously told the government that they would not treat patients under the scheme owing to dues, mellowed down after the government released Rs 250 crore out of the Rs 1,000 crore dues.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

Dubai, Jul 29: Muslim pilgrims on Wednesday begin the annual Haj, downsized this year as the Saudi hosts strive to prevent a coronavirus outbreak during the five-day pilgrimage.

The Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, is usually one of the world's largest religious gatherings.

But this year only up to 10,000 people already residing in the Kingdom will participate in the ritual, a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world that attended last year.

"There are no security-related concerns in this pilgrimage, but (downsizing) is to protect pilgrims from the danger of the pandemic," said Khalid bin Qarar Al Harbi, Saudi Arabia's director of public security.

Pilgrims will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing during a series of religious rites that are completed over five days in the holy city of Makkah and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia.

Those selected to take part in the Haj were subject to temperature checks and placed in quarantine as they began trickling into Makkah at the weekend.

State media showed health workers sanitising their luggage, and some pilgrims reported being given electronic wristbands to allow authorities to monitor their whereabouts.

Workers, clutching brooms and disinfectant, were seen cleaning the area around the Kaaba, the structure at the centre of the Grand Mosque draped in gold-embroidered cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

Haj authorities have cordoned off the Holy Kaaba this year, saying pilgrims will not be allowed to touch it, to limit the chances of infection.

They also reported setting up multiple health facilities, mobile clinics and ambulances to cater to the pilgrims.

Saudi authorities said only around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the Kingdom would be permitted for the Haj. Some 70 per cent of the pilgrims are foreigners residing in the Kingdom, while the rest will be Saudi citizens, authorities said.

All worshippers were required to be tested for coronavirus before arriving in the holy city of Makkah and will also have to quarantine after the pilgrimage as the number of cases in the Kingdom nears 270,000.

They were given elaborate amenity kits that include sterilised pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer rug and the Ihram, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims, according to a Haj ministry programme document.

"I did not expect, among millions of Muslims, to be blessed with approval," Emirati pilgrim Abdullah Al Kathiri said in a video released by the Saudi media ministry.

"It is an indescribable feeling... especially since it is my first pilgrimage."

The Haj ministry said non-Saudi residents of the Kingdom from around 160 countries competed in the online selection process but it did not say how many people applied.

Despite the pandemic, many pilgrims consider it safer to participate in this year's ritual without the usual colossal crowds cramming into tiny religious sites, which make it a logistical nightmare and a health hazard.

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