I fasted (had no food or water throughout the day) for three Ramadans, including one whole month of Ramadan, without any break. As is stated in Islam, while fasting, you realize the plight of the poor people, the ones who don’t get enough food,and suffer from hunger. Islam says that Ramadan is about generosity and sharing your wealth with others who are less fortunate than you, and their sufferings can be understood in this month by fasting.
One incident that I witnessed in Istanbul helped me a lot to understand the real culture and purpose behind Ramadan as summarized by me in the above lines. When I was in Istanbul, one of the most beautiful cities in Turkey, It was time of Ramadan and I did not fast or practice any kind of abstinence. However, Turkey is well known for its Ramadan culture, even the people who are not religious or believers, fast during Ramadan. Moreover, coming together at the city center for finishing their fast for the day at the sunset with loud Azan voices coming from magnificent mosques is quite common for the people in the city. They then start eating in large groups. It is actually a tradition that comes from the Ottomans.
While I was there, at Taksim Square ( located in the city center), a group of people who belonged to a political party were resolving their fasts and having dinner, and also listening to a party representative’s speech. While these people were enjoying their exquisite and appetizing Turkish meals, the refugee children from Syria were sitting in the corner and watching them eat. It was so easy to apprehend that they were hungry, probably from days. This refuted the whole idea of Ramadan. I did not even feel like staying in the city. The next morning, I left Istanbul, because it was not the same city for me anymore.
Even though, the number of technologies and innovative ideas which help us improve our life standards and solve our issues are increasing day by day, there also is something that we are losing and sacrificing. We are facing degradation of values within ourselves, we sacrifice the values (it can come from religion, culture or anywhere, it doesn't matter) and use them for our selfish benefits. But is it really worth it? What could possibly be more important than values that build us, connect us, help us grow and understand each other? For more technological benefits and materialistic modern privileges, we are ready to give up the culture of sharing and understanding, that has been in our nature for many centuries now.
In my country, Azerbaijan, during Ramadan, it is very usual for businessmen to go together to eat and resolve their fasts. It is a very good strategy to establish networks with like-minded people and grow. There is only one feeling or idea in their brains while they are doing it — the urge to get rid of hunger with a delicious meal, sitting at a sophisticated place, enjoying conversation with intelligent people and most importantly, the thought to finish one more fast successfully.
And there is a funny rule to this thing. This dinner is always given by one of these rich guys to other rich guys who do not even need such kind of a favor. That is how they enjoy their Ramadan, when there are thousands of individuals who get their meal of the day from the leftovers from these plates. This is not Ramadan.
I hope, in this Ramadan, iftar or breaking a fast will not be used for materialistic reasons and such people will understand the motive behind this and implement that as much as they can.
To conclude, Ramadan has great core values which I think should be reserved. You can spend this month with anyone you want, but the core values should stay stuck with you, always. Sharing and understanding being the most important of all. The methodologies to implement these values and to experience them can be changed as everyone has their own way of exploration. One can make Iftar with family, friends or office mates, it is not obligatory that this person should spend all his time and money for poor people. However, if a person forgets that this month was created by God for values of understanding poor and sharing additional wealth with them, he/she can not enjoy this great month fully. It would be better for ourselves if we apply Ramadan’s values to all spheres all our life, such as family, business, society etc. rather than focusing on materialistic benefits of these values.
The main point that I would like to emphasize with the story would be, how we keep up with the principal values in all spheres of our lives and how often we remind ourselves about them. Be it business, relationships, friendships, family, career or social life, if we keep sacrificing values for the sake of materialistic benefits, we would have short-term wins but in the long term, our lives would be ruined by superficial takeovers, businesses and societies.Our inner peace resides in these values.
Ramadan Mubarak!
