Precise meaning and depth of Ramadan

by Amjad Mohamed-Saleem

SWe are all travellers on the same path, struggling to seek Allah's pleasure.

The price to acquire the traits of self control, serenity, awareness of the other, respect for the fellow and tenderness is a permanent personal battle against our innermost evil desires. Death, life, experiences, ordeals, pain, solitude, joy and happiness, are so many lessons to be learnt and taught on this journey.

The most beautiful and the most difficult lesson to be learnt or taught? At the end of the journey, you will find the Beginning, the Source, the One.

The secret of life is hidden in the place from which you set out. You will find God only by rediscovering the essence of your own nature. The essence of your own nature is the 'return to oneself' with a consciousness of the Other.

The 'return to oneself' is about understanding that mankind is fragile and dependent and can only move forward through lessons learnt. This understanding requires a humble submission to reform one's inner space, to soothes one's heart close to the recognition of the Creator, to love in transparency and live in the light of Him.

It is this state of mind that demands a, lucid, sincere, and honest mind capable of sane self-criticism and a commitment to discipline and routine.

Ultimately the destination of the journey we have started is about reconciliation with the deepest level of our being (al fitra) - the original light that God breathed into our heart, where our conscience is at one with our being and our body is at one with the people.

This is one of the bounties that are derived from Ramadan.

As a scholar once wrote, 'Ramadan is about a marriage of apparently contradictory requirements that constitute the universe of faith.

The month of Ramadan marries the depth of the meaning with the precision of the form'.

At the heart of our consumer society, where materialism and individualism drive our daily lives, the Blessed Month of Ramadan reinforces our personal effort and commitment, invites us towards the deep horizons of introspection and meaning, reminds us of silence, restraint and remembrance, and inculcates the importance of detail, precision, rigour and discipline of practice.

A wise man once said, ' Between stimulus and response there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.

In those choices lie our growth and happiness .'

Such is the meaning of spirituality. Within this space there is God and one's heart, as the Qur'an reminds us: ".

..and know that [the knowledge of] God lies between the human being and his heart ."

Within this space everyone is asked to take up a dialogue with The Most-High and The Most-Close, a dialogue of intimacy, of sincerity, of love.

Within this space is the horizon of all spirituality requiring man to acquire a force of being and doing, rather than to undergo despotic relentlessness of a life reduced to mere instinct. Thus within this space is to equip oneself to move away from one's heart, one's bad thoughts, to distance oneself from the darkest dimensions of one's being... one's violence, one's jealousies, one's superficialities.

The Blessed Month of Ramadan is a feast of the faith of fraternal atmosphere that is shared with all brothers and sisters.

In the shadow of the Quran's light, its words and inspirations, we must comprehend the message.

To serve humanity and to awake ones conscience in the proximity of the wounds and the injustices that people face.

So how does one make use of this month of Mercy?

In this very spiritual month there are practical implications The purification of one's intention of fasting - to be honest and sincere in ones devotion.

The recognition of the value of time during Ramadhan.

The provision of food for others particularly when it is time to break the fast.

The generous donation from one's wealth for the poor and the needy.

The avoidance of fighting and argument and the reconciliation of disputes

This Ramadan, let us strive to reinforce this remembrance of God and to remember our duties with the people, for to be with God is to be with the people.

This Ramadan let us not only journey into intimacy and solitude within our self, but inculcate our responsibility as creations of God to serve humanity.