The holy month of Ramadan is approaching, and with it, the excitement of believers grows. The feeling is a mix of joy, eagerness, and responsibility.

Some people also experience a bit of nervousness and tension. However, nothing and no one can diminish the blessedness and otherworldliness associated with Ramadan and everything that comes with it.

I believe this is entailed in a weak (da’if) hadith of the Prophet featuring his supplication: “O Allah! Grant us barakah (blessing) during the months of Rajab and Sha’ban, and allow us to reach Ramadan.”

Imploring Almighty Allah merely to let us reach and experience yet another Ramadan, without mentioning any specifics, means that Ramadan is filled with so much goodness and so many benefits that it’s nearly impossible for anyone to miss them. Hence, people grow enthusiastic, even impatient. They cannot wait for the moment of Ramadan’s arrival.

When a person reaches Ramadan, his spirituality becomes a smooth sailing experience. It feels as if Ramadan takes over one’s entire being, nurturing it with its own aura and glow. There is nothing that can go wrong. After a month of growth and refinement, a person emerges transformed: purified and forgiven.

Indeed, Ramadan demonstrates what Islam actually is, who Muslims are, and how life should not just be lived but also appreciated. In other words, Ramadan shows how life can be lived to the fullest, with Muslims leading the way.

Freedom as a primary value

On top of the benefits of life that Ramadan brings to the forefront and enhances is human freedom. Islam honors man by creating him as the vicegerent of the earth, by subjecting to him whatever is in the heavens and on the earth, and by placing him at the core of the ideas and phenomena of the totality of creation.

Islam, at the same time, does whatever is necessary through its spiritual, moral, and epistemological frameworks to sustain the position and status of man, guiding him on a continuous soaring trajectory from strength to strength and from one vantage to another.

Ramadan, with its infinite world of spiritual significance, merits, and practices, stands out as a format and process that aim to awaken, build, and uplift people.

During Ramadan, a believer demonstrates how free and consequential he is. Though physically trapped on earth, his immaterial dimensions are unleashed, and transcending all limitations and realms, he aims for the highest orders of meaning, experience, and beauty.

The inner and external curbs of a believer are not what they seem at first glance. Instead, they are cumulative stages in – and aspects of - a gradual, yet consistent, rise. 

While the earth is merely a launching platform, the entire existential reality is a coliseum having defeated or brought under control his animal instincts and desires, his egotistic ambitions and needs, and his greedy yearnings and hopes, a believer, especially during Ramadan, is ready to embark on a journey of upward progress. There is nothing, or very little, to hold him back. Not even the sky is the limit.

The truest meaning of freedom

This condition, undeniably, is the truest meaning of freedom, encompassing faith, thought, and conduct. By accepting that Almighty Allah is his Creator and Master, and the only One worthy of worship, a believer empowers himself to overcome false claims to mastery, easily rising above them and focusing his enlightened mind and soul on the divine.

A believer thus becomes true to himself and to his purpose. He becomes truly free and in control of his destiny. He becomes increasingly positive and productive, always giving more and demanding less.

That is why, during Ramadan, the Qur’an, as humanity’s last Testament, was revealed through the angel Jibril (Gabriel). It is also why, just before Ramadan, about a month and a few days earlier, the Prophet was taken on the Mi’raj (Ascension into heaven) journey, during which the institution of prayer was established.

The Qur’an was given from above as a rope or a connection to heaven, allowing a person to connect with the divine and rise through dimensions. Meanwhile, the institution of prayer was established in heaven, indicating how far—how high—a believer can go and should unfailingly aim.

Combining the opportunities and strengths of the Qur’an and prayer, and enhancing this union with the benefits of fasting and other blessings attached to Ramadan, allows a person to overcome the inadequacies related to himself and the world around him. This enables him to pursue a path of self-actualization that aligns with his heavenly calling. 

Even the Battle of Badr, the first and most decisive battle in the history of Islam, which took place during Ramadan, should be viewed in this context. It was the miraculous outcome of the Battle that shaped the Muslim consciousness more than anything else. In the aftermath, the Muslim's biological freedom and socio-political sovereignty were forever secured.

This way, a believer's affirmation of his Creator signifies an affirmation of his identity and the authentic meaning of life. It also represents a rejection of any circumstances that could enslave his God-given abilities and confine them to the lowliness of matter, ego, and self- worship. Submitting to and worshiping only Allah upholds both the humanity and sanctity of man.

Nonbelievers and the lack of freedom

Conversely, while Ramadan and fasting affirm freedom for Muslims, they simultaneously highlight a lack of freedom for nonbelievers. Those who do not fast often claim that they do so because they are free from any authority dictating their actions. However, the opposite is true.

They do not fast because they declared "no" to their Creator and, in doing so, rejected the only opportunity to liberate themselves and live freely. Instead, they chose "yes" to other options that overpowered them and dictated their unfortunate life directions.

Nonbelievers will claim, under the guise of freedom, that they cannot live without coffee, tea, or cigarettes even for a few hours, that they cannot work or simply live with empty stomachs, and that they must be hydrated at all times. However, little do they realize that these statements reveal how enslaved they are and how much their free choices are taken away by their most ignoble desires, lusts, delusions, and fears.

These control nonbelievers to such an extent that they cannot imagine any other possibility or scenario without them. The devils and animal aspects within them are the only lens through which they observe, judge, and act. Sadly, those people are unaware—trapped by their personal deities and idols—of the worthlessness and indignity that define their lives.

They have traded freedom for slavery and servitude to the utmost jurisdiction in exchange for unreal or imaginary powers, believing—while knowing nothing better or more uplifting—that this is freedom and the ultimate path to success. How delusional they are. The Qur’an also highlights that there are those who take their own desires as their god (al-Furqan 43). 

The most compelling evidence of the lamentable condition of nonbelievers emerges when they are encouraged to aspire to greater heights and progress further, such as becoming morally responsible, intellectually recalibrated, and spiritually ennobled. Their persistent reactions include assertions like, “I am unable,” “I lack interest,” and “that route is not meant for me.”

Those answers are exactly what to expect from a person who is incapacitated, constricted, and simply ensnared in his smallness and banalities. The customary doctrines are characterized by a sense of helplessness and pessimism.

Without a doubt, nothing better can be expected from someone who has yet to taste the worth of existence and sweetness of freedom. It's not surprising that substances like alcohol and drugs play a significant role in the lives of nonbelievers.

The distress caused by ontological uncertainty and confusion needs to be addressed in some way. The only approach seems to be an attempt, albeit futile, to escape from it.

Believers, on the other hand, can never have enough of life and its opportunities. They are “intoxicated” with love for the truth and cravings for eternal divine bliss. Ramadan serves as an embodiment of this mentality.

The parable of nonbelievers is like prisoners visited by their free and adventurous friends, who share stories of their dynamic lifestyles. Occasionally, partly joking and partly serious, they invite their imprisoned friends to join them one day.

However, the latter always respond that they neither want to nor can, as their way of life, prospects, and opportunities are different—much more limited, narrower, and unexciting. Misled, they believe that this is all there is, and they pretend to be happy about it.

If nonbelievers could only peek into the Ramadan universe, or honestly experience any of its blessings, they would then be able to taste and appreciate what Islam and Muslims in reality are, how life is meant to be lived, and finally what bona fide freedom is.

As it is now, though, while freedom is on everyone’s lips, both individually and institutionally, it remains just a cliché and a decoy for contradicting and denying it. As the most elusive commodity, freedom persists as sheer wishful thinking.