Voice of British Muslim Women

Tooba Khokhar, Cambridge

This wakeful heart is a lantern—hide it under your cloak.
Pass beyond these restless winds; they carry chaos and strife.
– Rumi[1]

Every speck of us is finite, but our souls are not. Our bodies are of this world, but our hearts carry a memory of the Divine. It is precisely because of this that our bodies can find comfort in the sustenance of this world, but our hearts are often battered by its harsh winds.

We consider our modern and contemporary society to be unlike any that has gone before it. However, society in the West has only taken leave of its religiosity to turn back to the hedonism it had abandoned. What could be more primal and primitive than the culture we see around us today, where there is no right or wrong. It seems any action that does not harm others is considered acceptable even if it does the greatest harm to one’s own self.

In this system of ethics, the self becomes the centre of the world. The culture of endless consumption and egoism that ensues, is poison to the heart and its nobility.

The Islamic faith is one that aims to return man to his primordial state, that of purity. The world is a constant source of distraction, amusing our nafs or ego, while our heart moves further from its original source. The practice of Islam is designed to bring to us a contentment that is an antidote to the maladies of this world. One of the ways in which this is achieved is fasting. 

‘Ramadan’ is mentioned only once in the Holy Qur’an. Yet, it is in the verse immediately after the reference to the sacred month that God states:

And when My servants ask

thee about Me, say: ‘I am near.’[2]

Ramadan is a month of nearness to God, of drawing closer to Him by forsaking the physical bounty of the world around us, and turning towards the spiritual provisions of our hearts.

Throughout the year, we worship our Maker by standing up for prayer, engaging in remembrance, and reciting the Qur’an. In Ramadan, we worship our Lord in our every breath by following the commandment to fast.   

Ramadan is a disruption to the rhythms of this world. It is a month in which we break the cycle of consumption, and in the quietness that ensues, reestablish a bond with the Divine.

Fasting is a spiritual exercise in many faiths and cultures, and in Islam it is prescribed for a month’s period for all except those whose illness, infirmity or other circumstances do not allow. 

In the verse in which God prescribes fasting during Ramadan, He states that He seeks yusr or ease for the believers. While fasting may bring discomfort to the body, by depriving it of food and water from dawn to dusk, if practiced with intention, it brings much comfort and ease to the heart.

Ramadan is an incomparable month, one in which we are invited to forego material riches for spiritual ones. It is an experience which if done correctly does much to restore tranquillity to hearts in a restless world.  

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[1] Molana, Divan e Shams, 563

[2] The Holy Qur’an, ch. 2, v. 187