We asked our questions about Ramadan, the sultan of eleven months, to Ahmet Efe Hodja, retired Imam of Ebubekir Mosque.
Ahmet Efe Hodja, who gave advice on the spiritual treatment of the great earthquakes we have experienced recently, also made special evaluations for the Milli Gazete.
“OUR FAITH IN FATE ACHIEVES DELIVERY”
Teacher, the earthquakes we experienced on February 6 caused all of us a deep pain and sadness as a country. How would you evaluate the arrival of Ramadan in such a difficult climate?
By nature, human beings do not like pain, troubles, sadness and annoying things. He always wants to be happy, to be comfortable, not to face the absence. But things do not go the way we want in the Sunnatullah (law laid down by our Lord) that we cannot resist. The roads are bumpy. Besides the light of the day, there is the darkness of the night, next to the pain there is sweetness, next to wealth there is poverty, next to health there is disease. There is also the fact that the ground, which is well-behaved under our feet, shakes off the things on it with a fury. They said that everything is eternal with its opposite. If we are within the rules of this Sunnatullah, we must be ready to face any manifestation of it, whether we want it or not. An Arabic proverb says "one day is for you, one day is against" when describing life.
Such is life. However, thankfully, our faith in destiny leads to surrender, not rebellion. This surrender gives us peace, tranquility, and sweet peace, and brings us closer to our Lord. In addition, when a person is sad, his heart becomes thinner and his feelings of compassion increase. As a nation, our hearts are sad because of the earthquake disaster that has befallen us this year, but we are closer to the Owner of the Universe. That's why this year, we welcome the month of Ramadan with more mature and broad feelings, inshallah.
How can a Muslim revive the month of Ramadan in the best way? What would you recommend us in this regard?
We can say that the most beautiful revival of this year's Ramadan should be with nafs reckoning. Yes, the earthquake is a disaster, a destiny, but what is our share as human beings in the transformation of this destiny into a disaster, in the preparation of that environment? Isn't it destined to pass it off as fate, to avoid responsibility? If we made our buildings vulnerable to earthquakes and caused so many lives and property to perish, is this the fault of fate? We should question them. If we load our people with engineering knowledge, but do not teach that this knowledge should be used for the benefit of humanity, not to the detriment of humanity, if we do not teach it, who do you think will be the apparent cause of the disaster that befell us?
If there is a power other than religion that can manage a person's conscience, pronouns and inner world, let him come. In my opinion, the best way to revive this year's Ramadan is to make an accounting of it as a nation. If the Japanese nation, which has a superstitious understanding of religion, can give its citizens some values that we envy, if we, as members of a religion like Islam, cannot do this, we will clean up more earthquake debris and shed tears.