Quotes & Sayings About Ramadan

Ramadan makes you closer to God. — Saddam Hussein

IS [Islamic State] has played a major role in helping Bashar al-Assad to reposition Syria on the international scene. Now, it is almost impossible to come up with a solution that would exclude him. The political game appears to be very cynical indeed. — Tariq Ramadan

Even though the Olympics take place during Ramadan, some Muslim athletes said they will not fast during games. Then, after sampling the British food, they said, on second thought, fasting sounds good. — Conan O'Brien

Criticizing to destroy is easy, thinking in order to build is much more difficult to achieve — Tariq Ramadan

We must re-center philosophy within our frame of reference which I think is the way to deal with it. — Tariq Ramadan

Fear is created which can lead to racism. However, we can overcome that fear through trust. — Tariq Ramadan

The strength of democratic societies relies on their capacity to know how to stand firm against extremism while respecting justice in the means used to fight terrorism. — Tariq Ramadan

Nothing is ever final" is a lesson in humility; "no final judgment should be passed" is a promise of hope. The — Tariq Ramadan

The best measure of a successful life is the way we turn away, we renounce, and even by the way we depart it. — Tariq Ramadan

Islam brings hope and comfort to millions of people in my country, and to more than a billion people worldwide. Ramadan is also an occasion to remember that Islam gave birth to a rich civilization of learning that has benefited mankind. — George W. Bush

Many U.S. organizations believe that I am being barred from the country not because of my actions but because of my ideas. The conclusion seems inescapable. — Tariq Ramadan

No civilisation can claim to have a monopoly on universal values and no one can claim to be always faithful to his own values. — Tariq Ramadan

Mankind must be positively and constructively wary of mankind, of their fellow man, of their families, of the members of their faith community, of their fellow-citizens. — Tariq Ramadan

No one must ever let power or social, economic, or political interest turn him or her away from other human beings, from the attention they deserve and the respect they are entitled to. nothing must ever lead to a person to compromise this principle or faith in favor of a political strategy aimed at saving or protecting a community from some peril. The freely offered, sincere heart of a poor, powerless individual is worth a thousand times more in the sight of God than the assiduously courted, self-interested heart of a rich one. — Tariq Ramadan

Festivals and fasts are unhinged, traveling backward at a rate of ten days per year, attached to no season. Even Laylat ul Qadr, the holiest night in Ramadan, drifts
its precise date is unknown. The iconclasm laid down by Muhammed was absolute: you must resist attachment not only to painted images, but to natural ones. Ramadan, Muharram, the Eids; you associate no religious event with the tang of snow in the air, or spring thaw, or the advent of summer. God permeates these things
as the saying goes, Allah is beautiful, and He loves beauty
but they are transient. Forced to concentrate on the eternal, you begin to see, or think you see, the bones and sinews of the world beneath its seasonal flesh. The sun and moon become formidable clockwork. They are transient also, but hint at the dark planes that stretch beyond the earth in every direction, full of stars and dust, toward a retreating, incomprehensible edge — G. Willow Wilson

The Prophet's life is an invitation to a spirituality that avoids no question and teaches us - in the course of events, trials, hardships, and our quest - that the true answers to existential questions are more often those given by the heart than by the intelligence. Deeply, simply: he who cannot love cannot understand. — Tariq Ramadan

Ramadan is, in its essence, a month of humanist spirituality. — Tariq Ramadan

Humility is knowing that you can get an answer from anybody: be it a child, another person, or nature. — Tariq Ramadan

I have learned that one should say "Peace!" to those who shout their hatred for one's being and presence or at one's passage. — Tariq Ramadan

We should not fool ourselves. When the Quran says wa la qad karamna Bani Adam ["we have honored the Children of Adam"] so yes we should all be free but this should not mean that we must act against the dignity of human beings. — Tariq Ramadan

In fact all the Islamists, that is the reformists not the Salafis, now they all say that they want a civil state, a civil state with Islamic reference points. They are not talking about an Islamic state, or sharia in the way this was once understood in the fight against the colonisers, or just afterwards in the 70's, 80's and 90's. — Tariq Ramadan

Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, but Arab culture is not the culture of Islam. — Tariq Ramadan

Humility is my table, respect is my garment, empathy is my food and curiosity is my drink. As for love, it has a thousand names and is by my side at every window. — Tariq Ramadan

The month of Ramadan is the world's most widespread fast and yet its teachings are minimised, neglected and even betrayed (through literal application of rules that overlooks their ultimate objective). — Tariq Ramadan

The Prophet himself was a model of equity toward those who did not share his faith. Through — Tariq Ramadan

The problem, once again, as in all sciences is the attitude of the mind that is dealing with whatever field. The problem is not philosophy but the lack of intellectual humility. It is when reason becomes arrogant that we lose track. But intellectual humility with science: this is spirituality - this is the way we are with God. So we should not be scared and we must reconcile ourselves. — Tariq Ramadan

Your country needs religious leaders and religious politicians — Tariq Ramadan

Every country in Europe needs immigrants for its economic survival. — Tariq Ramadan

The more I know, the best I believe. The more I know, the best I'm worshiping Him. Because, in the end Allah knows the best. — Tariq Ramadan

We need to realize that we should be on the side of any human being who is oppressed. — Tariq Ramadan

We can think of solutions in various theoretical ways, but it's not so on the ground. If they don't have a reference that helps them to belong, then they will end up excluding, and through that they get to feel that they belong on the basis of some narrow identity, language or color. — Tariq Ramadan

The Prophet answered: "How could I but be a thankful servant?"1 He did not demand of his Companions the worship, fasting, and meditations that he exacted of himself. — Tariq Ramadan

I don't buy anything which is Islamization of knowledge. I don't understand what it means in fact. — Tariq Ramadan

The Turkish road is not my model because I am critical of the way you are dealing with freedom of expression, of how you are dealing with the treatment of minorities, and your economic vision. — Tariq Ramadan

All of us should show humility, respect, and consistency. Humility, by admitting that nobody, no civilization or nation, holds a monopoly on universals and on the good, and that our political and social systems are not perfect; respect toward others because we should be convinced that their richness and achievements can be beneficial to us; and last consistency, because the other's presence acts like a mirror in which we should confront our own contradictions and inconsistency in the concrete, day-to-day implementation of our noblest values. — Tariq Ramadan

Islam doesn't need reform, we need to reform the Muslim mind. — Tariq Ramadan

I'm working on different fields. One of my next books Insha'Allah will be a novel because it's important to explore the heart and imagination, the spiritual side. I've been working for twenty five years in the legal field and now I'm reaching what I want, which is an Islamic applied ethics and I'm also dealing with Muslims in the West. — Tariq Ramadan

Unfortunately there are some trends that are changing this but you don't have for example as strict and narrow understanding of the relationship between men and women. And then there is the philosophy we have to extract in the relationship between text and culture. — Tariq Ramadan

We fail when we try to give simple answers to complicated problems. — Tariq Ramadan

When I came here [to Malaysia] I heard that there is a problem with the concept of pluralism whereby pluralism is understood in a very narrow way, which I think is wrong. This is not to diminish your sense of truth in what you believe but to acknowledge the fact that we live in a world where we need to deal with pluralism. It's a fact. — Tariq Ramadan

I am saying the same to Muslims in the global South, telling them: "Just ignore what is done." However, in the Southern countries they are not living in a comfortable society like you and me. They deal with unemployment, corruption, and surviving. For the majority of them, their religion is helping them survive. — Tariq Ramadan

Don't go into Ramadan having hurt anyone without seeking their forgiveness. The last thing you'd want on the day of judgment is to find that your entire Ramadan with all of its quran recitation, fasting, taraweeh prayers, laylatul qadr, etc. went completely to waste because your pride stopped you from saying "I'm sorry". With that being said, I'm sorry if I've written, said, or done anything to offend you. Please find it in your heart to forgive and make dua that Allah grants me guidance and sincerity. — Omar Suleiman

I don't like this vision that Turkey is successful because it is as successful as the western powers in economic terms. But I do think they are trying to find a new space in the multi-polar world, and this is what I am advocating. I don't think that Muslims have an alternative model. — Tariq Ramadan

Islam came to teach us that there is no faith without intelligence and here we are: destroying our intelligence in the name of faith. — Tariq Ramadan

If you do not have boundaries, you do not have a path. — Tariq Ramadan

There is great potential and deep fragility [in Malaysia] that can be used by any group that stresses on religion, pushing towards Islam, rejecting people and alienating migrants - anything can be used to win the next elections. So these are the signs of fragility that is very much there. — Tariq Ramadan

You're asking me how not to doubt. Good question.My answer is, you can't. This is life — Tariq Ramadan

I can see myself sitting all day in my chair, immersed in lives, plots, and sentences, intoxicated by words and chimeras, paralyzed by satisfaction and contentment, reading until the deepening twilight, until I can no longer make out the words, until my mind begins to wander, until my aching muscles are no longer able to keep the book aloft. Joy is the anticipation of joy. Reading a fine book for the first time is as sumptuous as the first sip of orange juice that breaks the fast in Ramadan. — Rabih Alameddine

One does not always know how to express the sorrow of the soul. One does not always know how to silence the joy of the heart. — Tariq Ramadan

It is only through the opposition of ideas that we can learn to be self-critical, to work towards intellectual humility. — Tariq Ramadan

Malaysia is a country unlike any other: Full of promise and fragility. Its history, cultural and religious diversity make it a rich, compelling and surprising land. — Tariq Ramadan

The collective psychology is something very close to being sacred - we can do it but we don't do it. We should understand that the Holocaust in the European conscience is reaching a point which is very close to what is sacred for people in the Southern countries, whether they are Muslims or not. Because of that we need to try to have intellectual empathy. — Tariq Ramadan

Muslims must decide, lest they end up divided by the very religion that calls upon them to unite. — Tariq Ramadan

It is like using a smoke screen, the same thing for an individual. The topic here is Islam. If French politicians are no longer talking about Islam, they know they will have to talk about something else, which brings the spotlight on their inefficiency. They will have to talk about domestic social and economic issues and they will have to justify their foreign policy, which is obviously something they need to avoid at all costs. — Tariq Ramadan

Don't nurture a sense of guilt; rather, nurture a sense of responsibility married with a sense of humility. — Tariq Ramadan

The diversity is the risk of war, the necessity of diversity is mutual respect — Tariq Ramadan

If there is a smoke, there is a fire, the saying goes, That is quite true, but one should find what the fire is, and who lit it. — Tariq Ramadan

Teach the heart not to give way to proud emotions and arrogant thinking; bring the mind to heart-soothing solutions that make it possible to control oneself gently and wisely. — Tariq Ramadan

I want to be an activist professor. — Tariq Ramadan

Never forget your dialogue with God, it is your strength. — Tariq Ramadan

What I see now is that even with the Islamists, who have been portraying themselves as the alternative to corruption and dictatorship and in defence of more transparency, there is one respect in which they have now changed completely. Since the beginning of the 1920's, Islamism was very close in positioning in some respects to 'liberation theology'. But that is no longer the case. — Tariq Ramadan

Destroying the nation state are mainly three things: the global economy, global communication technology and global culture. And this is where we are lost in the process. What could be something that can provide us a transversal political sense of belonging? At the end of the day, without an alternative we end up with populism in the name of very narrow identities. — Tariq Ramadan

Life is not black and white when it comes to perception. — Tariq Ramadan

Eid is a time of joy, after a season of fasting and prayer and reflection. Each year, the end of Ramadan means celebration and thanksgiving for millions of Americans. And your joy during this season enriches the life of our great country. This year, Eid is celebrated at the same time as Hanukkah and Advent. So it's a good time for people of these great faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, to remember how much we have in common: devotion to family, a commitment to care for those in need, a belief in God and His justice, and the hope for peace on earth. — George W. Bush

Part of the French political class is realising that there is are large number of Muslim people coming from the ghettos who want to make themselves heard, politically, especially about foreign policy issues. Its electoral weight can bring back to the forefront the Palestinian issue. — Tariq Ramadan

There are in you two qualities that God loves: clemency [al-hilm] and forbearance [al-ana, "nobleness," "tolerance"]. — Tariq Ramadan

I wanted to understand. I'm not here to support one, but I am here to criticize all, on a principled position. I very much value the position of counter power. I think this is where ethics should be, in front of power as I said in Radical Reform. The power of counter-power is very important. — Tariq Ramadan

I think we are making a mistake, a very big mistake if we look at what we call the Arab Awakening only by looking at the whole dynamics in political and not in economic terms. — Tariq Ramadan

Those organisations, al-Qaeda being the first one, have all settled in areas full of mining and oil resources or in geostrategic zones. They settled in Afghanistan which underground is filled with oil and lithium. North Mali is filled with mining resources (uranium). It is essential to question the impact and role of some international players that create or let those organisations settle there. — Tariq Ramadan

Praise belongs to God who appointed among those roads His month, the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, the month of submission, the month of purity, the month of putting to test, the month of standing in prayer, in which the Quran was sent down as guidance to the people, and as clear signs of the Guidance and the Separator. — Imam Zayn Al 'Abidin Al-Sahifat Al-Sajjadiyya

Pray in the night so that you can change the world in the day — Tariq Ramadan

Like the sun that sets at the end of the day, so too will Ramadan come and go, leaving only it's mark on our heart's sky. — Yasmin Mogahed

Saying that the origin of the Islamic State (IS) is within the Muslim Brotherhood organisation only strengthens IS. This is what the Israeli government asserts when claiming that Hamas and IS are the exact same thing. By saying so, the historical resistance [against the Israeli occupation] is viewed as unlawful, called extremism and terrorism. — Tariq Ramadan

Man is certainly free, but he is responsible for this freedom before God as before men. This responsibility is inevitably moral. In order of this morality, to be free is to protect the freedom of others and their dignities. — Tariq Ramadan

When you're overwhelmed by your emotion, you listen less and you judge more. This is also the reality of the dogmatic mind. — Tariq Ramadan

The problem is that the constitution should have been and was an opportunity, exactly as Moncef Marzouki tried to do, to bring together the secularists and Islamists. — Tariq Ramadan

Since the uprisings in the Middle East many scholars have come out saying that freedom comes first before the Shariah. There is also something important that we must keep in mind in our understanding the Shariah, and that is the room for what is permissible should be as wide as possible. So we should leave it open to let people be creative. — Tariq Ramadan

Even the concept of the infidel is misleading, because the infidel is normally someone with a different faith, someone who refuses to recognize the truth of the words of the Koran, as revealed by God. He has every right to do so, as long as he does not question my right to believe in my truth. — Tariq Ramadan

Having traveled a lot and met people from different horizons it makes you more humble and ready to listen. — Tariq Ramadan

We are in a world that is connected, but is not communicating. — Tariq Ramadan

I have never, so far, in all the studies I have done, met a contradiction between what the human, experimental and natural sciences are telling us and the Islamic rules. In fact, the opposite is true: anything that is coming from the modern sciences is helping me better understand the text. It's not a contradiction. It's a relation. — Tariq Ramadan

Islam can only be modernized from within. If I state that I condemn the practice of stoning, that this punishment is despicable, it changes nothing. My fellow Muslims will say: Brother Tariq, you became a European, a Swiss citizen, so you are no longer one of us. — Tariq Ramadan

This simple truth is the essence of my message to Muslims throughout the world: know who you are, who you want to be, and start talking and working with whom you are not. Find common values and build with fellow citizens a society based on diversity and equality. — Tariq Ramadan

I focus on Islamic applied ethics in many fields, and here I am saying that coming back to the Qu'ran and the sunnah as our reference point does not mean that we depend for our ethics on 'Islam as opposed to the others'. — Tariq Ramadan

The 'fires'n that produce thick, rarely innocent, often strategic smoke should therefore be scrutinized. they should be known and identified; and when they involve dishonesty, lies, or manipulation, they they should be ignored. — Tariq Ramadan

In Ramadan, you should eat less and think more. — Tariq Ramadan

Before God and in conscience, Muslims cannot satisfy themselves by repeating what the texts say and then snap their fingers at daily social realities: that would be to speak of an ideal while at the same time blind themselves as to their daily betrayal. — Tariq Ramadan

If you are not at peace with yourself then you cannot spread peace. — Tariq Ramadan

The only way to resist colonialism is through education. — Tariq Ramadan

No one can deny that some Islamist groups have credential and popularity. But that does not mean they are a majority. If we are serious about democracy we cannot blame the people for choosing what they want. We must promote the kinds of procedures and processes that are helping the people move ahead. — Tariq Ramadan

We have to reconcile ourselves with philosophical questions in every field. Every field should be open to inquiry and knowledge. — Tariq Ramadan

A good Muslim is not one who is strictest in his judgment, but who is most patient in listening. — Tariq Ramadan

Spirituality means both accepting and mastering one's instincts: living one's natural desires in the light of one's principles is a prayer. It is never a misdeed, nor is it hypocrisy. — Tariq Ramadan

A time will come when you're going to be numerous but your impact in the world will be like nothing — Tariq Ramadan

If you want to have a good life, never forget that you are going to die — Tariq Ramadan

Our pluralist society must provide its citizens with the tools to understand religions, their symbols and their practices. — Tariq Ramadan

Wisdom is always connected to beauty. When you see someone acting by their principles, their wisdom makes them beautiful. — Tariq Ramadan

I had no intention to cover my tracks since I am not a politician and I do not represent anybody. — Tariq Ramadan

Saying that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth just proves my very point. Politicians would bypass real social issues by referring to my grandfather, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, or to my brother, currently chairman of the Islamic Centre in Geneva. — Tariq Ramadan

One would love nonetheless to know how to be a man, how to be a woman before God, in the mirror of one's own conscience, in the looks of those who surround us. One would wish to find the strength to beautify one's thoughts and to purify one's heart. It is everyone's hope and expectation to live in serenity and to plod along in transparency: the palms of the hands patiently directed towards heaven, at the heart of all this modernity. — Tariq Ramadan