Ramadan: A Flavor Like No Other

Article in brief: The month of Ramadan is almost over, and we need to make sure that we have embraced it properly.

There it goes. The month we’ve all been waiting for.  The most beautiful thirty days of every year, the holy month of Ramadan: a month of serenity, clarity, purity, and love. It’s the time of year when families and friends come together to celebrate the wonderful teachings of Islam in all of the aspects of their lives. Not only does it focus on doing good deeds and humane practices, but it also highlights the importance of good intentions, and a clear vision.

A lot of people question the concept of fasting and its purpose. Dr. Steve Maraboli, a behavioral scientist, once said, “A lack of clarity could put the brakes on any journey to success.” Because we live in a world where there are so many distractions, it becomes sometimes very difficult for us to attain our goals. Thus, pursuing whatever it is we want to achieve will be hard due to all of the obstacles in the way, which are also caused by those distractions.

This Holy month is our ticket out. In these thirty days we feed our souls, and we feed our minds. Fasting, and focusing on praying and charity are all means to isolate ourselves from the minor things in life which take so much of our time. And only the people who understand that will be able to taste the delicious flavors of Ramadan.

Caras Lonut, a photographer, has a series of photographs entitled “The Serenity of Blue”. These photos are divided into three main parts: sky, water\land, and a focus point. The beauty of these artworks is in their simplicity, and in the fact that there is so much clarity and abstraction in the colors and elements. The same applies to our daily life; what we do is that we usually feed our bodies more than we feed our mind and soul. If we pay attention to all of these parts equally, we will have a balance in every aspect of our life, and every decision we make.

The beauty of a roaming bird in the clear sky above, a floating feather on the large body of water beyond; all these things detach us from all of our surroundings, and bring all of our attention into something so simple, yet very significant. All we have is a few more days of clarity to enjoy, those last few moments you spend in front of the ocean listening to the beautiful sound of the waves, let’s use what’s left of this month and embrace the enormous amount of energy it’s giving us. In the end it’s not about how long you endured without eating, it’s about how clear your vision of life is. Once we cleanse our perspective and understanding from the shallow thoughts of materialistic things, the important things in life will stand out eventually.