Ramadaan is the month of kindness

RAMADAAN is the holiest month for Muslims. It is also for the unity of community: families and friends get together to break the fast and perform collective prayers. For most Muslims, it is a time to pray, connect and introspect.

Ramadaan is a spiritual practice. It is about strengthening one’s connection with God – a time for prayer, reading the Qur’an and acts of charity, and it provides a chance for Muslims to refocus on what is most important.

Islam regards fasting as a mean of attaining spiritual, moral, and physical discipline of the highest order. Muslims perform acts of kindness during Ramadaan.

Fasting at Ramadaan raises our awareness of our vulnerability as human beings, rich or poor. The fast, practised by rich and poor alike, reminds the more fortunate members of society of the pain of hunger that the poor suffer.

I hope that this blessed month will be one when these troubles are lifted from Muslims.

Islam is a religion of love, mercy and tolerance and I take this opportunity to wish Muslims in South Africa and around the world a blessed Ramadaan.

May this month bring peace. NORIEN SULIMAN

Asherville

Using Christian symbol was rude

BEN Trovato’s mocking images of Christianity in last week’s Sunday Tribune are a disgrace and offensive to Christians. But, of course, he can get away with it.

If he did the same using

Muslim symbols, there would be uproar and possibly retribution. He knows this. Mocking Christianity is easy and cowardly. Show some respect.

GARRY HARE

Hillcrest

Power of love only option we have left

BISHOP Michael Curry went on and on and on about the power of love during the royal wedding, while smug-looking royalty and the rest of the perceived snooty wannabe-royalty at the hall kept a straight face, wondering: “Where did they get this weirdo from?”

He repeatedly reminded the newlyweds how important this power was, how it could cure all ills, ad nauseam.

On reflection, however, with almost every major country, some on the brink of bankruptcy or facing sanctions, others threatening wars based superficially on ideology but veiled around obvious scarce material resources, and yet others that want to enter irreversible nuclear minefields just for the sheer heck of it, I think the bishop was not just advising the watching world of something it did not know. It seemed he was most likely giving us the only option left.

EBRAHIM S ESSA Durban Parking costs at shopping malls irk

I HAVE stopped supporting shopping malls because of their location – they are kilometres away from the suburbs – and their exorbitant parking fees.

I feel affronted that I should pay to support malls, thus adding to their inflated profits.

I do most of my shopping at my local stores. The prices are also competitive compared with the shopping malls. Items that I can’t get, I purchase online.

I find this convenient. My local supermarkets are just around the corner, which helps me save on wear and tear and petrol which, at the moment, cost almost the same as the price of gold.

And above all we economise on time and safety.

Makro, Pick n Pay, Food Lover’s Market, The Hub, Mister Price and most of the major banks at Springfield Park, the Cornubia shopping complex at Mount Edgecombe and Game at City

View in Durban are some of the places that have customer-friendly parking.

If the Pavilion in Westville, Gateway in umhlanga and other malls that have paid parking want my business, then the companies that run those shopping malls should bear the cost of parking as their tenants are paying extremely high rentals.

ASHWIN NUNDLALL Bakerville Gardens