Ramadan Kareem!

This year’s Ramadan fast begins in Nigeria today, Wednesday, February 18, 2025. This followed the official announcement by the Sultanate Council in Sokoto, last night, of reports of the moon sighting received from Muslim leaders across the country. This was after the reports were duly scrutinised, verified and authenticated by the national moon sighting committee.

In his message, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General for both the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria and the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, urged Muslims to use the holy month to rededicate themselves to the teachings of Islam. He also enjoined them to use the holy month to pray for Allah’s intervention in the critical national challenges bedevilling the country including insecurity, resurgence of terrorists’ activities and a perilous set of intractable economic woes.

The observance of Ramadan fast in the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar is one of the five basic principles of Islam. Ramadan fast entails abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking and conjugal relationships between dawn and sunset for the entire period of the month of Ramadan. The injunction of this religious obligation is in Qur’an 2:183 wherein Allah, the Exalted, says, “O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you that ye may (learn) self-restraint.”

Ramadan is a month of forgiveness and mercy. In order to nevertheless take full advantage of all the spiritual opportunities availed by Ramadan, Muslims are advised to avoid gorging themselves on meals such that it becomes impossible for them to wake up and spend the night in worship. Prophetic tradition provides for Muslims to exercise moderation in everything they do.

Aside of physical abstinence from food and other restrictions placed upon believers during the day time of Ramadan, Muslims are further encouraged to use the period to exhibit the virtues of tolerance, hospitality, charity and kindness especially to the indigent and vulnerable members of the society. Prophetic traditions in Islam exhorts Muslims to give alms, feed the poor and invite others including non-Muslims to break the Ramadan fast with them. These acts of benevolence particularly in Ramadan, seek to promote religious understanding and tolerance, which today have more than ever become necessary for attaining the much-needed peace, social cohesion and national integration in Nigeria.

Patience and perseverance are some of the lessons learnt by Muslims when they observe the one-month Ramadan fast. It provides opportunity for self-discipline and self-evaluation. It restrains a worshipper against all forms of immorality. The pains of physical deprivation are felt but patiently endured. This deprivation and endurance, though temporary, makes the individual to be conscious of the effects of such pains suffered by many others, who either dwell in perpetual poverty or have limited access to basic necessities of life. This is the time for those who are more comfortable than others to empathise and share their luxuries and reserves from food, riches and joyful moments with the less-privileged others.

Ramadan is a holy season, and therefore, should not be accompanied with unholy acts such hoarding of grains, which is not only a manifestation of greed but also forbidden in Islam. Traders in essential commodities are urged not to take undue advantage of the Ramadan period to make usurious profits by exploiting the high demand of some commodities including fruits to increase their prices. Generally, Ramadan calls for the abandonment of greed.

Daily Trust exhorts preachers and scholars of exegesis of the Qur’an (Tafsir) to remain true to their calling as religious leaders by being sensitive to the peculiar circumstances in the country. While we encourage them to deploy wisdom and knowledge in preaching, inflammatory expressions should be avoided at all Ramadan preaching sessions. Clerics should be selective in their choice of words; avoiding statements that could provoke aggrieved and oppressed persons or groups. Similarly, partisan political statements should, as much as possible, be eschewed during preaching sessions on radio, television, and other conventional or social media platforms.

The entire Ramadan fast for this year would be observed under a very hot weather condition. In order to also ease the thirst and fatigue experienced by Muslims while fasting particularly after closing from offices, markets, factories and workshops, we urge authorities at the various public power distribution companies (DISCOs) across the country to improve on the daily hours of electricity supply.

Meanwhile, we call on state governments against fraudulent expenditures in the name of public feeding of indigent persons during Ramadan or the use of public funds to sponsor relations and aides to perform lesser-pilgrimage in Mecca.

Ramadan Kareem!

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