Ebrahim Moosa 

The hazy white blanket of mist has smothered the remnants of summer. There is a freezing chill in the air that seeps into the bones, numbing fingers and toes until they feel thick and stiff. We draw woollen hats over our reddened ears and tighten scarves over our morbid lips. Teeth chatter. Naked trees are everywhere. Life has become as grey as a barren wasteland, and everything feels so dismal..

For many, the bleakness of a winter panorama is a perfect ingredient for breeding a grey mood inside. The short days, the long nights, the dryness of the air, compel many of us to ache for summer again.

Yet, arising from this wintry bleakness, is a unique beauty that can hardly be found in any other season.

“Welcome to winter!” said the companion Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud RA. “Blessings descend in it, its nights are long to pray in, and its days are short to fast in.”

The Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) lauded winter as “the best season for the believer,” and described fasting therein as “the easy prize”. The Khalif, Sayyidina ‘Umar bin al-Khattab RA was also reported to have proclaimed: “Winter is the prize of the worshippers.”

Explaining this distinction, Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hambali says:

“Winter is the best season for the believer because…Allah strengthens his practice in it by making worship easy for him. This is because in winter, the believer can fast during the day with ease without suffering from hunger and thirst. The days are short and cold, and he therefore doesn’t feel the hardship of fasting.

“As for praying at night in the winter due to its long nights, one can have his share of sleep and then get up to pray afterwards and recite all that he usually recites of the Qur’an while he has had enough sleep. So, he can combine between the sleep that he needs and the usual amount of recitation of the Qur’an that he completes in a day. So, he fulfills the interests of both his religion and the comfort of his body”.

When it was winter time, ‘Ubayd bin ‘Umayr would say: “O people of the Qur’an! Your nights are now long for you to recite in. So, recite! Your days are now short for you to fast in. So, fast! Night prayer in the winter equals fasting during the day in the summer.”

As for the meaning of winter being an “easy prize”, Ibn Rajab elucidated that it is a prize obtained without any battle or effort or hardship. Hence, the recipient of this prize has been endowed with a favour notwithstanding the very minor effort on his part.

In winter, the pious predecessors would hasten to assist fellow humans beings whose lack of shelter or clothing would place them at the mercy of the elements. The season would also be considered a time ripe for reflection on the mercilessly bitter cold of Jahannum, and other agonizing realities of the Hereafter.

Meeting of the Seasons

Enter 2016, and for the inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere, this icy season again coincides with the season of change – Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

And similar to the merits established for winter above, Ramadan too is a season of fasting by day and standing in prayer by night.

The Prophet (SALLALLAHU ALAYHI WA SALLAM) said: “Anyone who fasts the month of Ramadan, out of Iman (Faith) and Ihtisab (confident anticipation of Allah’s Reward), will have their past sins forgiven. And anyone who spends the nights of Ramadan in Qiyam (optional Night Prayer), out of Iman and Ihtisab, will have their past sins forgiven. And anyone who spends Laylat-ul-Qadr in Qiyam, out of Iman and Ihtisab, will have their past sins forgiven.”

Al-Hafidh ibn Rajab RA said: “You should know that in Ramadan the believer combines two actions by which he struggles against himself: During the day-time by fasting, and during the night-time by night prayer. Whoever combines these two forms of struggle receives his reward without any account.”

This month is also a month of muwasaat, or exhibiting sympathy towards fellow man. The virtues of increased charity within it are well known, with narrations recording how, in this month, the Messenger of Allah SAW was prone to being as generous ‘as the wind’.

The Ramadan season, too, is an “easy prize” – in fact to a much greater degree than winter.

With its inception, the devils and rebellious jinn are chained up and the gates of Jahannum are closed, whilst the gates of Jannah are thrown wide open.

Whoever draws close to Allaah during it with a single Nafl action, it is considered akin to his performance of a Fardh act at other times. And whoever performs a Fardh during this season, he is rewarded to the tune of seventy Fardh actions performed at other times. And for the act of Sawm alone, Allah SWT promises Himself to be the reward.

In Ramadan, as is evident, several ‘multipliers’ are at play. We can all as well attest to the yearning to do good and magnetism towards exerting ourselves that comes automatically with this season. Compound this with the virtues and ease of winter, and, at once, the scale of the good fortune of our witnessing this ‘meeting of the seasons’ becomes apparent.

‘Ramaḍan’ is drawn from the word ramad which means that which is intensely or vehemently heated by the sun.  And the word ramdhaa denotes the intense heat of the sun. Ramaḍan was named such because it burns the sins of the believers.

Amidst the devastating cold of winter, we can consider this scorching spiritual heat of Ramadan to be the furnace that will pull off our pale blanket of unmindfulness, revealing the innate beauty our souls are capable of, and melting away all our sins.

“And among His Signs in this: thou seest the earth barren and desolate; but when We send down rain to it, it is stirred to life and yields increase. Truly, He Who gives life to the (dead) earth can surely give life to (men) who are dead. For He has power over all things.” (Surah Fussilat, 39)

May this be the Ramadan season that will stoke enduring life into our dead hearts. Aameen.