Ali Hammuda – Reviving Ramadan #09 – Neighbour Asked About Ramadan

			How should we explain Ramadan to non Muslims. Ramadan is the name of the ninth month of the Islamic
calendar
		

			during which Muslims carry out one of the five pillars of Islam fasting during the daylight hours of
the entire month of Ramadan. And this is a practice that has been around since the advent of time.
But Ramadan to summarize, in a single sentence is a spiritual bootcamp that reconstructs willpower
and perspective in quite unparalleled ways. At the core of Ramadan, is a restoration of the
centrality of God in our lives. And particularly in our age of distraction to make us mindful
beings, mindful of Allah, God's right to be submitted to mind mindful of his countless blessings,
mindful of those who are less fortunate, and mindful of the life that shall follow our current one.
		

			These are the exaggerated effects of a month's worth of religious fasting.
		

			You see, we spend about 11 months of the year, focusing almost entirely on what feeds our body, and
at times, becoming at the mercy of it as well. agitated by hunger paralyzed without the morning
coffee. As our thresholds for pain continue to plummet to an all time low. Then Ramadan arrives,
this divine instruction, and it's intended to disrupt our pattern of life for a brief moment in the
year where food and drink and physical intimacy they're limited for a period of time in order to
open up brand new pathways of reflection, that transcend the constant demands of appetites and
lonely, lonely worldly pursuits, and allows for the effective rebuilding of one soul. To achieve
		

			this, a period of deprivation is necessary, because full bellies often result in empty souls. And so
bellies are emptied to allow the filling of the souls in the first couple of days of Ramadan, most
will feel the heat of fasting, migraines, fatigue, mood swings, especially those who have not
maintained a steady fast all throughout the year. The first day of fasting is quite a shock to the
system. After the passage of around two or three days, the tight clutch or fasting begins to
somewhat ease and navigating appetites and cravings, et cetera, becomes a lot more manageable.
		

			After the passage of around a week, things here begin to change. Seeing now that your body has now
adapted to the pangs of hunger, your attention begins to shift elsewhere to areas of your life that
had largely been ignored throughout the year. Values connected to patience and contentment, empathy,
generosity, self composure, they begin to rise to the surface. And an ability to source energy and
motivation in other than food and drink is discovered. And more importantly, the veils of pride and
self importance and ego they begin to crumble You can't help it. In other words, the pieces of
precious values that the mill of life had systematically crushed all throughout the year there are
		

			slowly gathered again in Ramadan.
		

			By around the mid Ramadan mark, you experienced yet another peculiar development in yourself and
ability to see with beyond the mere sight of the eye, you now see with the insight of heart.
		

			As the veils of the soul are lifted, one after the other, a new clarity is discovered a new eye
opens up, you're now able to zoom out from the petty rat race of micro life to you catch a macro
glimpse of it all. And at that point,
		

			serious introspection begins. existential questions that were previously buried are unearthed. And
harsh interrogation of the self unfolds. By the end of Ramadan, you become an almost unrecognizably
different person.
		

			For the first time your heart is overwhelmed by humility, that yields an appreciation of the might
of Allah, a new sense of vulnerability that draws you nearer to allah God and the purest of
sincerity that hands over your entire life to God. A religious fasting of this duration does just
that. It adds color to black and white concepts. It converts to d values into 3d realities within
our lives. It's a spiritual conditioning like none other. All of this that I just shared with you
was summarized in one sentence when Allah Almighty said in the Quran, all believers fasting was
prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those before you so that you may become mindful of
		

			Allah then from us
		

			social perspective. Ramadan is just as transformational. In fact, some people are puzzled that how
some Muslims who are far more likely to fast during the month of Ramadan, which is quite a difficult
spiritual practice, as opposed to performing the daily five prayers which should be a lot easier.
		

			And one clue lies in a research recent Cigna study that shows that loneliness has reached epidemic
proportions in the US with about half of Americans feeling lonely and finding that they lacked
meaningful, daily social interactions, such as extended conversations with family and friends.
people crave a sense of being and belonging and being valued by others and feeling an attachment to
a community and that might be why so many Muslims are attached to Ramadan, even when tough times may
face the community.
		

			Many Muslims who don't attend the mosque all year round will come to the mosque on a nightly basis
in the month of Ramadan.
		

			Every night the mosque is filled with prayers and food and socializing and hosting of guests from
Muslims and non Muslims fundraisers. In truth, almost every Muslim will attest to reciting more
annual Ramadan and praying more
		

			than they did all throughout the year. The secret is the team effort that picks up even the weakest
member of the community.
		

			And what may surprise some people is that Muslims actually enjoy Ramadan so much that they grieve
when the month comes to an end.
		

			We miss the reading of the Quran throughout the day and the long nights of the prayer at night. And
we miss being as charitable as we were. And we miss being selfless and focused on what matters and
we miss being together. And by the time Ramadan departs, key realizations that cannot have been
picked up from a book or a video would have blossomed in our lives. The realization the true
happiness is in feeding the soul.
		

			And in being content with what you have, that prayer is better than sleep. Charity is better than
consumption, and that tomorrow's life after death is far greater than the current one.