Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is a special month in the year for all Muslims throughout the world. During this entire month, Muslims fast from the break of dawn to sunset.
During the daylight hours, strict restraints are placed on Muslims' daily lives. Muslims totally abstain from food, drink and sexual relations. Ramadan is a time of intensive worship and devotion to God, a time to read the Quran and for inner reflection, a time of comprehensive thanksgiving and giving in charity, a time of self-control and kindness, a time of training oneself to be a good, moral person.
At the end of the day the fast is broken with a meal called the iftar. Fasting during Ramadan is an act of obedience. It breaks the illusory lordship of the carnal self and reminding it of its innate helplessness, convinces it that it is a servant.
In the Quran it says, “Fasting is prescribed for Muslims, as it was prescribed for those before Muslims, so that we might achieve God-consciousness” (Quran 2:183). To non-Muslims it may appear to be a time of hardship and deprivation, but that is not our experience. Muslims think of Ramadan as a kind of tune-up for their spiritual lives. As a religious obligation, fasting has many special benefits. Among these, the most important is that it is a means of learning self-control. Due to the lack of preoccupation with the satisfaction of bodily appetites during the daylight hours of fasting, a measure of ascendancy is given to one's spiritual nature, which becomes a means of coming closer to God. As a secondary goal, fasting is a way of experiencing hunger and developing sympathy for the less fortunate and learning thankfulness and appreciation for all of God's bounties. It increases people's sympathy and compassion for persons who are deprived of the daily means of survival. It is also beneficial to the health and provides a break in the cycle of rigid habits or overindulgence. Perhaps fasting in Ramadan is the most widely practiced of all the Muslim forms of worship. Yet it does not prevent Muslims from conducting their day-to-day work, or business, as usual.
During the month of Ramadan, Affinity have hosted a total of 27 iftar’s, where we invited non-Muslim as well as Muslim guests to our various functions and homes. This is another way to build social harmony in breaking bread together and in the sharing of our sacred times together.
Mehmet Saral
President
