Ramadan, for the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), was not treated as a “seasonal ritual.” It was a training ground: intensified prayer, deeper Qur’anic attachment, and stricter moral self-governance—while still carrying the real burdens of leadership, writing, correspondence, and the pressures of hostile opposition. What stands out is not performative asceticism, but a principled, Qur’an-shaped spirituality: fasting where able, concession where genuinely necessary, and constant insistence that Ramadan is meant to transform character.
1) His approach to fasting: commitment with Qur’anic realism
A key statement preserved in Malfuzat makes his personal practice unmistakably clear:
He stated that he never missed fasting in Ramadan, except when illness brought him close to death; and even then, he emphasized that one should accept the Qur’anic concession only when truly compelled, and otherwise not “search for excuses.”¹
This is a critical corrective for two extremes that often appear in communities:
- Hardship-as-holiness: pushing the body into harm and then calling it piety.
- Excuse-as-habit: treating minor inconvenience as “valid concession.”
His line is Qur’anic and balanced: fasting is a command with a mercy clause—but that mercy clause is not a loophole for laziness.
2) Ramadan nights: prayer as the core engine
In the same Malfuzat passage, he describes Ramadan as a month in which prayer becomes intense, even describing it as a time when “prayer becomes intense and irresistible.”²
That phrasing matters. It reframes Ramadan from being about hunger-management to being about turning the heart into a pleading heart. In other words, Ramadan is not primarily a dietary feat; it is an inward acceleration—a month in which a believer learns how to ask, cry, repent, and attach themselves to Allah with seriousness.
3) Ramadan in the biography record: illness, fidyah, and honesty
His biography record draws attention to a period in which the Promised Messiah (as) did not fast due to legitimate illness and paid fidyah, then later returned to full fasting—again reflecting Qur’anic concession used properly, not casually.³
This point is important because it protects the Jama‘at from a false narrative: that righteousness equals never experiencing weakness. The Qur’anic model is truthful worship: when you can fast, you fast; when you genuinely cannot, you do not lie to Allah—and you honor the command through the concession He Himself granted.
4) Ramadan as Qur’an season: the Promised Messiah (as) on the Qur’an’s supremacy
A repeated theme in Jama‘at sermons citing the Promised Messiah (as) is that the Holy Qur’an is the central guidance—and Ramadan is the annual re-centering around it. In one oft-cited passage from Kashti-e-Nuh (Noah’s Ark), the Promised Messiah (as) elevates the Qur’an’s status so forcefully that it becomes the interpretive key for Ramadan itself: if the Qur’an had not been revealed, humanity would remain like a “dirty lump of flesh”; the Qur’an is the Book against which all other guidance amounts to nothing.⁴
That is not abstract praise. It implies a Ramadan program:
- not merely recitation without engagement,
- but recitation that produces obedience,
- and reflection that produces moral reform.
5) Ramadan and reform: the moral purpose (not hunger theatre)
Jama‘at guidance frequently stresses that fasting is meant to produce taqwa (God-conscious restraint), not social superiority. The Promised Messiah (as) repeatedly trained the Jama‘at toward inner reform: guarding the tongue, cutting vanity, rejecting spiritual laziness, and replacing ego with humility before Allah. Ramadan, in his framework, is a month where sins of the tongue and hidden arrogance become non-negotiables to confront—not optional “self-improvement goals.”
That is why his counsel about not “searching for excuses” sits beside his description of intense prayer. Ramadan in his life was an accountability month.
6) Leadership and Ramadan: work continued, but the spiritual axis did not move
A useful window into his lived reality comes from Life of Ahmad (A. R. Dard). The biography shows that even around Ramadan, he remained deeply engaged in writing and reviewing work, caring about accuracy, page order, and publication timelines—down to personally checking the sequence of pages of a book when he wanted it ready by the end of Ramadan.⁵ The same biography records occasions where he planned travel/stays “till the end of Ramadan” while issuing public challenges and announcements connected to his mission.⁶
This matters because it kills a modern myth: that Ramadan spirituality requires disappearing from responsibility. The Promised Messiah (as) modeled something more demanding: spiritual intensity inside real life, not outside it.
7) A practical Ramadan model drawn from his example
If you reduce his Ramadan pattern to a usable framework, it looks like this:
(a) Fast with sincerity, not theatrics
Fast as the norm. Use concession only when truly warranted. Don’t romanticize hardship; don’t weaponize excuses.¹
(b) Make prayer the centerpiece
He described Ramadan as a time when prayer becomes intense and irresistible—so a believer should plan for more du‘a, not just more exhaustion.²
(c) Rebuild your relationship with the Qur’an
Ramadan is Qur’an season. The Promised Messiah (as) anchored reform in the Qur’an’s supremacy and transformative guidance.⁴
(d) Let Ramadan touch character
The “win condition” of fasting is taqwa—restraint, humility, truthfulness, and changed behavior after Eid, not just during the month.
(e) Carry responsibilities—but don’t let them steal the month
He remained active in mission work and writing around Ramadan, but the spiritual axis stayed fixed.⁵⁶
Conclusion: Ramadan as a month of truthfulness before Allah
The Promised Messiah’s (as) Ramadan was not a performance of deprivation; it was a disciplined return to Allah—through fasting, prayer, Qur’an, and moral seriousness. His example gives the Jama‘at a clear path today: accept Islam as it is—both its commands and its concessions—without ego, without excuses, and without self-deception. If Ramadan does not produce stronger prayer, deeper Qur’an attachment, and visible moral reform, then we only changed meal-times—not lives.
Footnotes (Academic Format)
- Malfuzat, Vol. III, “Fasting in Ramadan,” p. 97.
- Malfuzat, Vol. III, “Fasting in Ramadan,” p. 97
- Naeem Osman Memon, Three in One, discussion citing Seeratul Mahdi, Vol. 1, pp. 51–52, regarding illness, missed fasts, and fidyah.
- Kashti-e-Nuh (Noah’s Ark), Ruhani Khaza’in Vol. 19, pp. 26–27; also cited alongside The Essence of Islam, Vol. 1, pp. 400–401, in “Ramadhan and The Holy Quran,” Friday Sermon (11 July 2014).
- A. R. Dard, Life of Ahmad, p. 149
- A. R. Dard, Life of Ahmad, p. 166
