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As is known, this is the festive month of Ramadan and as a blessed Muslim I would like to relate to the readers the felicity of this holy month.  We live in a world of incessant drama and constant chaos where one gradually gets lost in the worldly whereabouts which leads to confusion and further untoward lives. Due to this, we more or less become desultory and demure.

Therefore, to come closer to the Supreme Divinity – ALLAH – Muslims are provided with a very good escape every year that takes us far away from this ephemeral world to a more divine demesne that of the Masjid, where Muslims get a bonafide opportunity to offer their prayer (Salaah) along with a platform to ask for forgiveness of their sins and wrongdoings.

This month of Ramadan is an assemblage of faithful Musalmaans, the group of which, after being beleaguered from the shenanigans of their mortal lives, gets engaged in a camaraderie which has a bucolic effect on every present soul. Moreover, blessed are we Indian Muslims, who are born into the religion of Islam in a nation of blooming secularism. The more we thank God for it, the less it will seem each time. Nevertheless, the cynosure , that is, the focal point of admiration of this month is its flowering acts of prayers which the leading person (Imam) make us perform. Its bounty can be seen in people’s fasting which neither encourages us to do wrongful deeds nor it discourages us from performing acts of goodwill. One thing of utmost importance which Ramadan teaches us is the tact of PATIENCE, the relevance of which is omnipresent in our lives.  Patience is that seed whose implantation was done by Allah’s Beloved Hazrat Ali (A.S.).

RAMADAN – the month when you gradually start to realize that it is not the devil. It’s you. It is you who need to recapitulate your flaws and brood over the inevitable fact that we create our own destiny with our actions and as is truly said – your actions speak louder than your words. So speak only when your words are better than your silence. This month is the time to indulge in a divine dalliance with The Almighty to convert your time and activities of desuetude to a much better use. And indeed , cannot we make time for The One who created time itself ? – a question to dwell hard upon !

Image courtesy: Taqva

Also, there is this inherent diaphanous quality in humans to take things for granted. That is the sole reason we deceive ourselves when we say that we are hard core Muslims who comprehensively follow the seven pillars of Islam, when, the bitter-true fact is that we really do not ! Why ? Is this because of our erstwhile involvement in things or because of our furtive temperaments? Is it our languor or our lassitude? I’ll tell you what it actually is – it is simply our tendency to temporarily imbue ourselves with the falsification that we pray. We do pray, but solely for fulfilling the daily five time requirement. But Ramadan teaches us to revive the bond with our Creator with which we were born, it glorifies the Lord’s Eternal presence, it provides us with a seraglio to worship whole heartedly.

And surely, it is evocative of the fact that God resides in each and every one of us. It just needs a frivolous transgression for Muslims to peek into their souls and rejuvenate the lissome connection that is shared with Allah, The Almighty.  But, glued to this, there is this sad fact that for many of us, the Holy Book ( Qur’an) has gathered a lot of dust since the last time we picked it up.  The Lord we worship in Ramadan is the same Lord we tend to turn away from in all the other months. For a true Muslim, end of Ramadan is not “THE END” but start of a new journey leading towards Jannah(Heaven). So let us reaffirm our faith in our Creator and live our lives like everyday is Ramadan because then, the Akhirah will become our Eid !!

I would like to conclude by saying that the month of Ramadan is a talisman that helps  defeat our greatest nemesis, that is, the devil inside our own selves and in turn, it opens a plethora of incentives for us to come closer to The One who created us.

An ode to Ramzan –

An opulent petrichor laden with redolent divinity,

A mellifluous murmuring filled with simplicity;

Lo behold! Here ends a month of piety,

Taking with it all the sins of its deity !!

About the Author: Afsha Paliwala