Social Service has been given special importance during the month of Ramadhan. The Holy Prophet (SAW) has described the month of Ramadhan as the month of brotherhood and fellow-feeling. This month is meant for showing sympathy and grief-sharing with human beings like us, brothers and sisters all. Particularly in economic and financial matters, this month is about sharing the sense of deprivation, worries and problems of others and to help them out. While your hunger and thirst can become a means of producing qualities of piety, control of the self, obedience to God, and patience, it can also give you a taste of what is felt by others during hunger, thirst, grief and pain. Personal experience can generate a strong and sustainable urge for sympathy and help for others. This area of piety, virtue and goodness is quite vast and has many branches.
Great gifts and bestowals like forgiveness from sins, freedom from hell, quenching of thirst at fountain of Kausar, entry into heaven are achieved through service of humanity.
Feeding hungry, treatment of the sick, guarding orphans and widows, meeting the demands of the destitute and oppressed, keeping good relations with relatives all fall in this category. In order to draw attention towards this extensive task, the Holy Prophet (SAW) has told us about the great reward for providing Iftar meal to a fasting person to break his fast. The Prophet (SAW) said: A person who provides Iftar to his fasting brother, he will be forgiven from his sins and saved from hellfire. He will get as much reward as of his fasting brother, without any decrease in the reward of the latter. The Prophet’s Companions said, “All of us do not have as much means as to provide Iftar to the fasting!” The Prophet (SAW) replied that Allah rewards even the one who offers one sip of milk, one date and one sip of water to the fasting. The one who provides meal to the hungry to fully satisfy his hunger, Allah Almighty will satiate him from my fountain Kausar, so that he will not feel thirsty till his entry into heaven. Make sure in this month that you serve your brothers and sisters, feed the hungry and give from your wealth the share that is due to the one who asks as well as the one who is destitute but does not be out of the sense of modesty. Always remember that great gifts and bestowals like forgiveness from sins, freedom from hell, quenching of thirst at fountain of Kausar, entry into heaven are achieved through service of humanity.
