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Ramadan - the best of times, the worst of times!

Ramadan - the best of times, the worst of times!

Issue 48 September 2008

Any consideration of Ramadan in the modern western context brings to mind the opening line of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...’ – presenting as this month does a whole array of stark ironies.

Of course, Ramadan is the month of blessings and mercy but our celebration of it leaves many of us with real feelings of disquiet and despair and renders it the worst of times insofar as we squander it away and denigrate its true essence.

The month of abstention has become the month of extreme indulgence. The month of contemplation has become the month in which precious hours are frittered away in frivolous and wasteful pursuits of material gratification. The month, that for centuries has been eulogised and about which impassioned tracts have been written, is now no more than a month in which we abstain, for short bursts of time, from base animal and physical acts. In a world where unbounded hedonism is the order of the day, 30 days of abstemiousness is not to be scoffed at and is a feat of conviction but there is a real danger that Ramadan is becoming no more than that.

Ramadan is, undoubtedly, the best of times and most of us cannot but be touched by the spirit of it; but it is the worst of times in that it exacerbates the inherent conflict between the attainment of spiritual bliss and the barren shallowness of fast-paced urban living. It poses the greatest of challenges as we try to imbue Ramadan and our lives with meaning, something of substance that we can impart to ourselves and to the next generation. Given that we are a people that mothball the soul and hide it away, we struggle to take it out of hiding in Ramadan – and if we do manage to take it out we are completely unsure of how to nourish and feed it. Indeed, we all begin the month with lofty intentions but do we get beyond the mere intentions? Will we, at the end of the month, return our souls to the darkest recesses of the mothballed closet?

Ramadan is too a time for celebration, but in celebrating it and Eid-ul-Fitr, we have wholeheartedly accepted prevailing and largely material notions of celebration – celebration, according to that mindset, is synonymous with consumption and excess. It is inconceivable for us to celebrate anything without there being huge amounts of food and drink.

So the iftar table is adorned, in most households, with all manner of treats. So too on Eid most of the day is spent in a gluttonous unashamed eating fest. We’ve been wholly unimaginative in devising celebratory practices that do not involve indulgent eating and drinking. Of course, the sharing of food is a special and significant way of strengthening family and community ties but it is increasingly becoming an end in itself rather than a means to an end.

Ramadan is not only a month of excess in terms of consumption of food but in other ways too. Food preparation consumes and devours valuable hours that could otherwise be dedicated to spiritual activity and worship. Having vowed never to become slaves to the stove during Ramadan, scores of women do just that.

In addition, as Eid moves further and further to a Christmas-like grandiose and commercialised affair, countless Muslim women are taking on the burden of ensuring abundant food, new clothes, well decorated homes and neatly wrapped gifts for all around them. Needless to say, many Ramadan hours are spent in discharging this burden. There is, no doubt, a place for all these, and the way of the Prophet allows for them. It is understandable, also, that we should want our children to enjoy such aspects of Eid given the festivities attendant upon other major religious and cultural events. However, we cannot allow these trends to compromise or subvert the true essence of Ramadan and Eid. If we’re not careful, the Month of Mercy will become a banal, prosaic and unholy marriage of abstinence and extravagance. Before that unhappy alliance becomes culturally entrenched, we should return Ramadan to its hallowed position and ensure that it is always the best of times.




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