These days I am usually up by four in the morning. No other time of day or night is more blessed for meditation and work,and also for watching the magical transition from darkness to light,especially in Mumbais monsoon season. And this being the holy month of Ramzaan,I am also well in time to be a distant witness to the unbelievable way the Muslim community in the neighbourhood prepares for roza,the daylong fasting ritual. As loudspeakers fitted on mosques keep reminding the faithful about sehri ka waqt (the precise time to start fasting),I can visualise how Muslim families hurriedly conclude their pre-sehri eating to start yet another new day of self-denial in a month that epitomises Islamic piety at its best. Indeed,nothing else broadcasts the philosophy and practice of spiritual Islam better than Ramzaan,about which Rumi writes:
The month of fasting has come,The emperors banner has arrived,Withhold your hand from food,The spirits table has arrived.
If we forget feasting that follows fasting at politically inspired iftaar parties,it is possible to see that the quintessential call of Ramzaan is to adapt to a life of simplicity,frugality,fortitude and attention towards needs of the soul rather than towards those of the body. Let us sacrifice all our body,since the soul has arrived as guest, sings Rumi. There is an unseen sweetness in the stomachs emptiness. When the brain and the belly burn from fasting,every moment a new song rises out of the fire.
In many ways,the message of Ramzaan is a manifesto against western materialism,which has spread to many parts of the world,including Muslim countries. This is a system that thrives on excess for some and deprivation for many. It survives by encouraging people,through the seductive art of advertising,to consume more than they need. It ensures that the greed of a minority prevails over the needs of the majority. This does not mean that inequality,exploitation,hedonism,hypocrisy and moral decay are the monopoly of the non-Muslim world. The true spirit of Ramzaan is also conspicuous by its absence among the ruling elites of Saudi Arabia,Pakistan,Gulf sheikhdoms and other Muslim countries.
Two more reflectionsone happy and the other not so!
Four years ago,celestial movements conspired to bring Eid-ul-Fitr,which marks the end of Ramzaan,and Diwali almost on the same day. Pakistaniat.com,my favourite website on Pakistan founded by Adil Najam,carried a rare photograph of a Diwali lamp being lit in Krishna Mandir in Rawalpindi and Juma-tul-Vida (the last Friday in Ramzaan) prayers at the historic Wazir Khan mosque in Lahore. The website also carried this couplet,which has since become a popular communal harmony greeting in the SMS circuit in India: Agar Diwali mein hai Ali/ Aur Ramzaan mein Ram ka naam/ To Hindu aur Musalman ke beech/ Nafrat ka kya hai kaam? (If Diwali contains Ali,and Ramzaan the name of Ram,then what place has hatred between Hindus and Muslims?) How true! Our festivals are bearers of the message of universal love and brotherhood. In multi-religious India (sadly,Pakistan has long ceased to be multi-religious,Hindus there having been reduced to a microscopic minority,Najams Rawalpindi picture notwithstanding),we must rejoice in all our festivals and build strong bonds of goodwill and mutual understanding.
Two days ago,Adil Najams website carried a photographic report of a different kindof religious extremists attacking Shia processions in Lahore and Karachi,and killing dozens of people. Pakistan is at war, Najam wrote in anguish and despair. In recent years,Pakistan has witnessed a series of terrorist strikes targeting Shias,Ahmediyas and Sufis. This made me ponder over a troubling paradox. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Islams insistence on righteousness and God-consciousness is loud and clear,more emphatically so in the practice of fasting and prayers during Ramzaan. Why,then,do a minority of Muslims exhibit that streak of extreme intolerance which rejects other faiths as false or aberrant,seeks to violently suppress diversity within Islam,and never hides its ultimate goal of establishing a uniform and dogmatic interpretation of Islam as the reigning faith all over the world?
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