Recently in Spirituality Category

As the fading crescent moon can attest to, the month of Ramadan is coming to a close. All around the world, readings of the Qur'an that started on the first page 30 days ago are reaching their conclusions. The long nights in the mosque over the last 10 days, in eager search of the Night of Power, have left many exhausted yet spiritually alive. For me, this month has been a time to look carefully at my life as a Muslim in America.

Is my life being lived in accordance to the principles of my religion? Is there anything I have done in the past for which I need to seek forgiveness? Are the big decisions I am making in my life ones that will keep me on the the straight path, and keep me from wronging others? These questions have kept me up at night for the last month, as I ask God for guidance in the coming year.

But in addition to recommitting oneself to the principles of my religion, Ramadan has also been a time for reinforcing social bonds, both within the Muslim American community and between Muslims and other Americans. As Muslim American institutions -- mosques, schools, community centers, and media -- continue to grow, the resources available to Muslims celebrating Ramadan increase. And as awareness of Ramadan increases among the American population at large, opportunities for interfaith understanding and shared celebration present themselves. One need only look up at the Empire State Building -- clad in green over the coming weekend in commemoration of the end of Ramadan -- to see how far we've come, despite the challenges of living in a post-9/11 America.

There is a communal and public aspect of Ramadan that helps to bind Muslims as a community (ummah in Arabic), and there are the logistics of fasting that help us balance our daily responsibilities around the commitment to fast. But the act of fasting is, at its heart, a very personal spiritual experience--a contract between ourselves and our Creator that helps to reestablish our place with respect to Him.

Fasting serves the mental purpose of taming our ego, the physical purpose of putting mind over body, and the spiritual purpose of submitting ourselves to God's will.

It is human nature to empower and elevate ourselves. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when left unchecked, it can become an addiction that upsets the critical balance between people that is needed for a civil society. Muslims, like all humans, are no exception to this instinct. Left to our own devices, we would worship only ourselves and resist any attempt to put rules and restrictions on our behavior. But there is an inner voice or state--Muslims refer to it as our fitra--that recalls a primordial covenant with God to recognize His authority over all things. It is this basic relationship between human and divine that Ramadan seeks to reestablish.