Let us give thanks for and not squander the blessings bestowed on us by our lord in the holy month of Ramadan

Almighty Allah has permitted us to spend yet another month of Ramadan with our Muslim brothers and sisters, and has brought us to the time of this most excellent observance in a state of health and security.

As revealed in the Qur’an in the verse “Beforehand we certainly used to call on Him because He is the All-Good, the Most Merciful” (Surat at-Tur, 28), Allah is He Who bestows countless blessings and beauties through the course of an individual’s life. Everything that exists comes from Him. All beauty and blessings are manifestations of our Lord’s omniscience. This is revealed in the Qur’an:

He has given you everything you have asked Him for. If you tried to number Allah’s blessings, you could never count them. Man is indeed wrongdoing, ungrateful. (Surah Ibrahim, 34)

Every moment of our lives, we encounter innumerable instances of Almighty Allah’s blessings. In return for these blessings, Allah wishes us to give thanks to Him.

By His mercy, Allah does not hold human beings responsible for their errors or what they forget. He imparts no responsibility in situations beyond their power. He lifts their burden by teaching them patience, fortitude and trust in Him. The name of Allah as Al-Haleem (The All-Clement, The Lenient) is revealed in the Qur’an as follows:

Allah keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Lenient, Ever-Forgiving. (Surah Fatir, 41)

There is a purpose behind the creation of every blessing. Blessings are not created in order for human beings to use them irresponsibly and heedlessly at the promptings of their earthly desires. With the blessings He bestows, Allah shows us His love and compassion. One aspect of the wisdom in the granting of blessings is that the person using that blessing turns towards Allah. People must not forget that they will be held to account for every blessing bestowed by our Lord, the Most Compassionate of the compassionate:

Then you will be asked that Day about the pleasures you enjoyed. (Surat at-Takathur, 8)

Allah wishes His servants to make use of the blessings He has created, but has forbidden us to waste them. He has revealed this to His servants thus in the Qur’an:

It is He Who produces gardens, both cultivated and wild, and palm-trees and crops of diverse kinds, and olives and pomegranates, both similar and dissimilar. Eat of their fruits when they bear fruit and pay their due on the day of their harvest, and do not be profligate. He does not love the profligate. (Surat al-An’am, 141) Give your relatives their due, and the very poor and travelers but do not squander what you have. Squanderers are brothers to the satans, and satan was ungrateful to his Lord. (Surat al-Isra’, 26-27)

Almighty Allah has forbidden all forms of profligacy, great or small. For that reason, thoughtlessly throwing away food or other things is incompatible with His approval. Allah produces thousands of different crops from the same soil. The earth itself is inedible, its taste and color is almost the same everywhere. But with the rain He sends down from the sky, Allah produces very different bounties with different tastes and flavors from that soil. Even green, yellow and red apples taste very different to one another.

Allah has created the DNA code inside the seeds of His bounties. These codes have never changed since the first moment of creation. The structure of these seeds has been made compatible with the oxygen and hydrogen that constitute water and exist in the air. He also determined that the rays of the Sun, a ball of fire at a great distance from the Earth, should benefit its plants. Yet human beings cannot produce even a single seed from nothing. The foods that Allah brings to our tables must not be considered solely superficially. All these bounties are miracles of Allah. If Allah were to take these blessing away, there is no other power that could bring them back. Allah reveals this in another verse:

Say: “What do you think? If, one morning, your water disappears into the earth who will bring you running water?” (Surat al-Mulk, 30)

Allah has created an abundance of blessings to meet all human beings’ needs. One of the main reasons for hunger and poverty in this world is the failure to prevent waste. It is most important to seek ways of making use of all blessings without allowing corruption to creep in. More than 800 million people in the world are living in hunger. Yet vast quantities of food are still being wasted in many Western countries.

It must not be forgotten that it is satan who encourages waste. Since satan knows that Allah finds profligacy displeasing, he encourages the idea there is no harm in waste and heedlessly throwing things away. Believers must be on their guard in this area and call on each other to behave in a manner compatible with Allah’s approval.