Ramadhan is a time to focus and reflect (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Ramadhan is a time to focus and reflect
5:05pm Friday 17th August 2012 in Opinion
By Sir Bill Taylor, Lancashire Telegraph blogger
So Ramadhan or Ramzan is over almost for another year (it starts early July next year).
Living in East Lancs like we do, it would be pretty hard not to notice our work colleagues or neighbours observing the Holy Month and celebrating its conclusion with Eid ul-Fitr.
I suppose to those not imbued in Islamic tradition, a summer months Ramadhan seems the most difficult – no eating or drinking until iftar after 9pm and none after suhoor around 3.30am. A long day without sustenance.
I have enjoyed reading the Ramadhan Diary in our LT and especially the 'What Ramadhan Means to Me' section. Blessing, opportunity to reflect, self-evaluation, spiritual growth, charity-giving and self-accountability are amongst the phrases used by those observing the four very disciplined weeks.
Charity giving is central to Islam and especially during Ramadhan when Zakat, or giving to poorer people, is expected to be compulsory.
Islam, of course is an Ibrahimic or Abrahamic religion, as are Judaism and Christianity, sharing the same roots.
People who know me will know I am not particularly religious but I do understand the role and importance to religion and faith in many others' lives.
My sense is that if all religions were done away with, they would soon be reinvented with similar rules and considerations.
I’m also, unlike football’s Denis Wise, not a student of social anthropology. But I think as a species we are social beasts. We join things; tribes, clans, political parties, football supporters, families, religious groups.
Ramadhan and its disciplines seems a bit like Christian Lent to me. 40 days and nights of prayer, penance, repentance, and self-denial. A time to focus and reflect.
Have you just observed Ramadhan? Did you share in any aspects of it with your friends or neighbours?
What do we like/don’t we like about formal religions?
Comments are closed on this article.
Comments (6)
7:14pm Fri 17 Aug 12
mavrick says...
7:15pm Fri 17 Aug 12
BritainfortheBritish says...
I get sick of seeing them looking weary while workplaces make special allowances for them aka preferential treatment . No real hardship at all.
2:36pm Sat 18 Aug 12
Coeur de Lion says...
3:56pm Sat 18 Aug 12
Sue Lee says...
The Shafilea Ahmed and Tia Sharpe deaths recently have turned my stomach. Is there any religion or moral code anywhere that could justify the killing of a youngster in your charge, what interpretation of love is expressed like that?
The local Muslim community have been deafeningly silent on the Shafilea case.
Many of my friends have suddenly got a dose of devout Christianity as their children reach 10ish and time to apply for Big School?
Personally I'd dump all religion from social considerations and hope people could develop their own set of moral standards by which they could live their lives.
12:30am Sun 19 Aug 12
Darwen Malc says...
Religion can be a sound basis for setting standards and moral code, but (and I do not mean to offend anyone by this), most religious teachings go back millennia, and can be prone to mis-interpretation, or even passages mis-quoted and 'twisted' to suit some individuals ideology. And, anyway, whose religion is superior?
Would we want politicians setting the rules and morals that society lives by? No Thanks.
I try to live my life by the rule of 'I will treat people as I would like to be treated by them, not to offend one another and treat every individual with the respect they deserve'. Whether that was subtly indoctrinated in me at Sunday School, I don't know, but I do not (to my knowledge) discriminate on religious beliefs, race or creed. I try to get on with everybody I meet and never judge a book by its cover.
4:55pm Sun 26 Aug 12
BritainfortheBritish says...