In pursuit of moral attainment
The holy month of Ramadan begins today, and it's important to remember what makes this month so special and what we can learn from it for our individual and collective wellbeing. The holy month can perhaps be best described as a time when the physical world and the thought world align. Believers seeking divine mercy and moral and spiritual enlightenment perform prayers and various acts of self-restraint: abstinence from food, drink and other activities. It's a journey from the outermost to the innermost. The physical acts and rituals are meant to take us closer to the innermost reaches of our soul, a fact that bears repeating given the general fixation on the rituals only, not their intended lessons. Fasting teaches us many things and also inspires us to forget our petty divisions for the common good.
These are lessons we need to remind ourselves of again and again as the world, and indeed our country, goes through a critical phase marked by hatred, bigotry and destruction. The seeds of division are being sown deliberately. The poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer; hatred and intolerance are taking over the finer aspects of humanity; and peace is getting increasingly illusive. At home, the manifestation of ribald consumerism matched equally by the vulgar greed for profiteering are everything that religion teaches us to shun.
The month-long pursuit of moral attainment that we embark on today should give us pause for a quiet introspection about our role in all of this and how we can change ourselves to change the world. Let the teachings of Ramadan be reflected in our actions not only for a month but for all times.
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