The Olubadan of Ibadanland, South West of Nigeria,Oba Lekan Balogun, has felicitated Muslims on the successful completion of the 2022 Ramadan Fast, praying that their supplications during the Holy Month would be acceptable to the Almighty Allah and their labour of self denial would be bountifully rewarded.
Oba Balogun said this in a statement, made in his Alarere residence to mark the end of the compulsory Islamic religious rites, in which he also charged the Islamic faithfuls to be guided by the lessons of the Ramadan Fast as they resume their normal lives.
Recalling that one of the purposes of Ramadan Fast is to share in the feeling of the have-nots so as to know how to relate with them by ministering to their needs, the monarch stated that the 30-day experience should not be made to end with the breaking of the fast, which is being celebrated, but to permanently guide the relationship of the faithful with others.
He said: “It is an incontrovertible fact that Muslims shun all acts known and acceptable as vices during the Ramadan Fast. But, I’m asking that we should let our lifestyle during the Ramadan period be our permanent way of life. By that, we will show love and compassion to others, especially the less privileged ones.
“If we allow the Ramadan Fast principle of total submission to the will of Allah through our self-denial for a whole month to permeate our lives, we will be more responsible and responsive in the society. Greed and avarice would depart from our system and the society would become better for all of us to live,” Oba Balogun added.
He enjoined the Islamic faithful not to go back to their old ways of life, considered antithetical to Islam, which they willingly and obediently dropped during the Ramadan Fast, stressing that if they did not find it difficult to do away with those things while the Ramadan Fast lasted, it should be difficult to go back to them after the Eid-el-Fitri.
While praying that the Almighty Allah would grant all the grace to be partakers of similar exercise next year and beyond, the monarch also prevailed on the Muslim faithful to celebrate with caution and consideration for others.
“We should all be grateful to the Almighty Allah for the opportunity to peacefully and joyfully end the Ramadan Fast and do whatever we want to do with utmost moderation,” the Olubadan stated.
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