A Lecturer at the Department of Religions, University of Ghana,Legon, Dr Hajia Fatima Suleimana, has urged Muslims to approach Ramadan not merely as a period of abstinence from food and drink but as a sacred season of spiritual renewal, discipline and accountability.

Delivering a lecture on the theme “Ramadan as a Month of Renewal of Faith and Accountability,” in Accra last Saturday, Dr Suleimana described Ramadan as the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and a time devoted to fasting, prayer, reflection and community engagement.

Worship

She explained that fasting (sawm) was prescribed as an act of worship (ibadah), stressing that conscious actions performed for the pleasure of Allah become acts of devotion that cultivate piety.

Quoting Islamic scholar, Al-Ghazali, Dr Suleimana outlined three levels of fasting — ordinary, special and extra-special.

Ordinary fasting, she said, involves abstaining from food, drink and sexual relations from dawn to sunset.

Special fasting goes beyond physical restraint to include guarding the eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet from sin, while extra-special fasting demands purification of the heart from unworthy thoughts and total focus on Allah.

“The moral value of fasting lies in whole-body discipline and sincerity of intention (niyyah),” she said, adding that the fast must inspire nearness to God and character transformation.

Preoccupations

Dr Suleimana warned against practices that diminish the spiritual value of fasting, including preoccupation with food, excessive social media use, backbiting and scandal-mongering.

She noted that both the backbiter and the listener share in the sin, and reminded muslims of the prophetic teaching that fasting is a shield and that a fasting person should avoid foul speech and respond to provocation by saying, “I am fasting.”

She further cautioned that iftar meals must be financed from lawful earnings, since the source of one’s income affects the sincerity and reward of the fast.

On inner discipline, the lecturer said Ramadan cultivates mindfulness, gratitude and resilience through hunger and thirst, training believers to control negative emotions and harmful speech while practising patience, humility and kindness.

“Accountability in Ramadan is both personal and collective,” she stressed, explaining that consciousness of Allah’s presence and belief in the Day of Judgment should inspire self-examination and moral conduct.

Strengthening bonds

Touching on community life, Dr Suleimana said congregational prayers and shared iftar meals strengthen social bonds and emotional resilience.

Charity and service, including food distribution, she added, reinforce empathy and social responsibility, with youth and men increasingly organising public food-sharing initiatives.

However, she observed that women often shoulder the burden of cooking and serving during Ramadan, highlighting the need to reflect on persistent gender roles in domestic spaces.

Ramadan, she concluded, remains a sacred opportunity for Muslims to renew their faith, purify their intentions and recommit to righteous living.