Carrying forward the spirit of Ramadhan

Learning about the faults and quality of our humanity is important to sustain a serene and harmonious life. It is our nature, our basic character, which makes us what we become in life. Just as our physical structure on our outside changes as we grow in age, our inner character gets to be different too as we grow into adulthood and in age. Just as we become physically stronger in our bodily strength and size, our inner evolution we call the ego is also developing in strength – depending on how much and of what we feed it. Lust, greed, anger, selfishness and resentfulness that have been our past experience feed the ego to make us the very manifestation of these traits in our every day life experiences. In contrast, those behaviors that starve the ego such as caring, loving, sharing, thankfulness, gratitude all add up to our adulthood being the manifestation of these noble characteristics. So, being mindful of what we feed the ego to lift us spiritually is just as important as being vigilant on what we feed our body to make us what we are physically. Either way, we can be left sick or healthy depending on which path we choose to take.

Can we take time to reflect on our foibles that are the lurking dangers within us and seek actively to diminish or erase these completely? Only then can we allow our true self -- that is not selfish, not competitive, and not resentful – to shine through. Or if we already have that goodness in ourselves, let’s preserve it and share it. “Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (Quran. 13:11)