ramadaan

ramadaan arrived,...and with the usual grace i envisioned this looong month ahead of me:).why the trepidation?i never quite know, and here we are,in just a few days and it will be over.until next year.

i always complain, as i jealously guard my right to enjoy sleep, the early morning alarm to partake of seri, is my nemesis, i feel aggrieved for having my sleep interrupted, especially since all i can take down at 4am in the morning is a glass of water,...this year was not any different in that regard.i am always amazed though at how we cope with a full working day at the office, then off home around 5pm, to help in the kitchen until,6pm rolls around and we wait expectantly for the adzaan,(the call to prayer that begins and ends the fast) so we can have our first sip of water for the day, and sweeten our tongues with dates.During the day, i have all sorts of cravings for the food i will later indulge in, only to find that my eyes are always bigger than my stomach.that my nose smells the wonderful smells of bhajia/samoosa/curries/but my system has other ideas.

since i am trying to loose some weight, i thought oh goody, the fast is perfectly timed, one month later, as i stand on the scale, i have only dropped a kilo,....my system and metabolism are really feeling the effects of my fourth decade on this planet. i shall just have to be a little more interested in exercise. we have a friend and business associate, who really shuts down over this month, gets to the office after 9am, perhaps copes for a couple of hours, then off home to sleep off the day until iftaar (time of fast breaking).my younger brother works for a jewish law firm, and his boss is wonderful, since he finds the fast over yon kippur(i think that is the jewish fast)which is 24 hours only,...quite difficult arshad gets to come home around 2pm everyday,...so while i toil at my desk, getting testy with clients,who call me unnecessarily about things i could be best left to attend to, these guys are relaxing for the rest of their day.while the women in their homes are working to prepare tantalising meals for the breaking of the fast. we are all not that lucky i suppose :)

ramadaan though is not only about sleep and food deprivation, most importantly the spiritual side of it, a time for reflection, and resolution....this year i could feel the benefit of that,as we get older i think our sense of the spiritual is more entrenched, or just better understood.i thank god every day for the blessing that is this world, and the opportunity to be a part of it all.i have both family and friends that are agnostic and atheist, for whom this is not really an issue, but the existence of "Allah" is unquestionable for me.not wanting to be morbid, today was a case in point, it is always auspicious for a Muslim, to pass on during this month,my dad's cousin may ALLAH rest his soul in peace,....came home from the taraweeh prayer last night, lay down for a nap and never woke up.he was not ill, had been out visiting friends and family collecting charity, which he usually does over this month, and left us so peacefully, the blessing here, is the peace of it all, no long illness, no illness in fact,he left not having troubled another living soul, it was his time,and it was beautiful.that has to strengthen my "belief". that is the kind of exit we can all hope and pray for.

religion is often dismissed as a fabrication,that we created to feel secure, or to have a reason outside of science to explain the existence of man. it is more than that i think, it is a way of life, the way we treat our fellow beings, how we treat ourselves,our approach to life is based in faith.when we say bismillah before all we do, 'in the name of god the most beneficent the most merciful'.religion must be a theology of right practice, we can never do wrong, if our intention an action is based in right practice,within the soul of every person, is god, in the breath that was blown, into Adam, which runs through us all.that is essentially ramadaan, the month that makes us aware of our fellows, that makes us sympathetic to suffering, hunger,pain, what we learn in this month, is what should inform our action throughout our lives, it is not limited to this one month only.

there is a sense of security and continuity in these traditions, which binds us to our past, and continues through the future, traditions which make sense even in today's uncertain world.