There is a stillness in Ramadaan; a special type of quiet that wraps around us. A stillness that renders us malleable; a warm and pliable soul, ready to receive all of Good.
Those things that rub against our grain; loaded words that bring on brain-hives and the desire to strew expletives over the offender — for no well-reasoned argument will dumb the donkey’s bray that offends — we find those things have no place in this soft soul.
It is from the stillness that patience is to be born, with a certain measure of tolerance and the will to let things go. Water off of a sheet of glass.
But I must acknowledge how fortunate we are to have within our midst, those who abide in domiciles built from a certain amorphous solid, and who are only too keen to hurl projectiles at those who pass by. Well-meaning missiles, of course; targeting our ill-placed sentiments into something that loosely resembles one person’s notion of what constitutes a Mu’min.
Why, you need not scar your forehead asking of The One to guide you onto the path of Truth and Light, when you’re being herded onto a trail predetermined by one who simply knows better.
And everyone knows better. Except you, of course.
My patience is not complete. It has yet to be tempered into something better than glass.
(Coffee at Sehri, keeps you Merry. Salma will agree, that rhymes somewhat)
Day 2 and 3
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Sometimes I wonder what the quality of MY prayer is??????
I mean we fast,but break our fast with the best of food.Only this morning as I left for work I noticed a man going through our bins just to nibble on that thrown away bone.
I just hope and pray that the man upstairs doesnt punish someone elses for my faults
🙂 I do agree that Berocca keeps me merry…
Yes… after years of secretly loving your blog, I finally make a comment on your blog, rather than by email/person or sms 😛
Keep up the writing… we (faizal and i) love it! 🙂
But yet instead of submitting to our soul’s nature, we impose our own desires on it, thus turning that soft pliancy of peace into a rigid object which doesn’t mould with us
Lovely post as always.
lol @ muhammad. banana fry at sehri shovelled into my half closed eyes by my patient mother was the bane of my childhood
reminds me of this:
I Go Among Trees and Sit Still
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle…
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
And the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
By Wendell Berry
Such true words. I find that Ramzaan heightens so many of our frustrations and experiences.
Coffee at sehri is definitely the thing.
two words: banana fry.
Lovely post 🙂 Coffee at sehri time is what gets me through the day!
There is such beauty in ritual – perhaps I realise this because as the daughter of an agnostic and an atheist I had no ritual.
Retreat is a part of all wisdom traditions and writing into the DNA of nature. The cycles of silence before the return of becoming. That forever leaving and finding your shores.
Intensely beautiful.
Subhanallah, you’ve captured the essence of Ramadan so well. May all of us come out of this month having grappled with our inner demons to meet the world with a new understanding.
I manage the caffeine widhdrawal with timely doses of arab coffee and green tea at iftar.