“The abstinence from life’s essentials is to help us appreciate the infinite blessings of the Creator.”
While we enjoy the blessings of the fasting month in the comforting safety of our homes with our families and look forward to Eid, there are thousands for whom life is a daily struggle
Something extraordinary happens to Muslim societies around the world during the fasting month of Ramadan. It is a surreal experience and only those who have been touched by it would identify with what I am trying to say. Ramadan brings out the best in the Islamic world, as the faithful fast, pray and open their doors and hearts to the less fortunate.
It has been yet another lonely Ramadan for me personally. It’s not easy spending this time of the year alone, far away from home and loved ones. It gets particularly lonely and depressing at the iftar time. I miss those lively family evenings and all the happy chatter and chaotic buzz that children generate on such occasions.
There’s nothing to beat a Ramadan in Hyderabad. No words can truly capture the atmospherics and endless hustle and bustle of a Ramadan back home, not to mention its muchloved haleem — a delicate, delectable fusion of meat, wheat and lentils — and other delicacies served especially during the month of fasting.
Even as I miss my kids, I cannot help revisit the Ramadan of my own childhood. The excitement of getting up for seher or suhour and then looking forward to all the fun and games with friends at iftar time. My kind mother seemed to stay awake all night to prepare the predawn meal. And who could forget those surreal, predawn drumbeaters who would go around singing to wake up the neighbourhood! Come Ramadan and I begin hearing those hauntingly beautiful, elegiac prayers and songs even here in Dubai. It is for traditions like these that one desperately longs to be back home this time of year.
A fellow Indian, however, says he couldn’t miss a Ramadan in Arabia for anything.
“The holy month seems to transform this ancient land, bringing out the best of the generous Arab spirit. You indeed feel you are living and breathing in the holy land. This is the best time to be in this part of the world,” insists Hassan. He is right of course. With the onset of Ramadan, the whole of Arabia indeed undergoes a mysterious metamorphosis, something out of this world. Peace and serenity seem to descend from heaven above to envelop everyone and everything.
Even Dubai with its posh malls, snazzy hotels, seaside villas and all that jazz wears a sombre look as it joins the rest of the Islamic world in celebrating the month of blessings.
Sharjah, the more traditional emirate, welcomes the month with great ceremony and solemnity. Named the cultural capital of the Arab world by Unesco in 1998 for its over 600 mosques, two dozen museums, art galleries and libraries, the emirate truly comes alive during Ramadan evenings when people come together to end the fast and then stand for night prayers.
But these are familiar scenes across the Islamic world, indeed around the world wherever the faithful live — from the Americas to Australia. A billion and a half people, tied to each other by an invisible bond of faith, live and breathe together like one body and soul.
The focal point of this extraordinary, liberating global spiritual experience is seen in Makkah where believers from around the world gather to celebrate the spirit of the holy month. With more than 2 million people thronging Makkah this time of the year and thousands perpetually circumambulating the Kaaba, the Grand Mosque presents a curiously awe-inspiring and moving sight.
Sharing and caring
The abstinence from life’s essentials for 14 to 16 hours (it is 21 hours in some Scandinavian countries) is to help us appreciate the infinite blessings of the Creator and everyday things that we take for granted. It is also meant to help us identify with the less fortunate and their needs and hunger.
Ramadan is all about sharing and caring. The faithful open their doors and purse strings for the poor and disadvantaged and give throughout the month, besides offering the mandatory zakat, a fixed portion of their wealth, to the needy.
From fasting and feasting together to standing up shoulder-to-shoulder in submission before God, this blessed month brings out the spirit of fellowship and universal brotherhood like nothing else does. It is something that has to be really experienced to be believed. This Ramadan would be remembered, not just for the long hours of fasting this summer with temperatures touching 45 to 48 degrees in some parts of the world. It is hard to shut one’s eyes to the predicament of thousands of fellow travellers across the region and around the world.
The carnage and bloodletting in many parts of the Middle East and around the world even in this fasting month is appalling but hardly unprecedented. From Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Muslims are being killed at the hands of lunatics who call themselves Muslims. These terror attacks in Europe, in Iraq and Afghanistan ostensibly carried out by an extremist fringe bring nothing but shame to the believers and help the agenda of their enemies.
While we enjoy the blessings of the holy month in the comforting safety of our homes with our families and look forward to Eid, there are thousands for whom life is a daily struggle.
This Ramadan spare a thought for the less fortunate and oppressed people everywhere. They need our prayers. When everyone and everything has failed to deliver, prayers might just work.
Aijaz Zaka Syed is an award winning journalist. Email: Aijaz.syed@hotmail.com