Starving The Belly To Feed The Soul: The Spiritual Training I’m Taking Away From Ramadan

After 30 days of consuming nil by mouth from dawn to dusk, Muslims around the world bid adieu to the holy month of Ramadan and welcome the festival of Eid al-Fitr. Whilst most of us will spend the day surrounded by loved ones, enjoying delicious food and giving gifts, I want to take a moment to reflect on the past four weeks.

By Mars Elkins-El Brogy,

It certainly has been a month of sheer discipline, limiting the indulgence of excessive worldly desires, purifying your tongue, reflecting on those less fortunate, upping the ante on charitable donations and of course controlling “hanger” all in pursuit of attaining “taqwa” or God consciousness.

For most, Ramadan is a time of contemplation. A time to really take stock and assess yourself as a person. It is, in many ways, a time to perfect what you see in the spiritual mirror.

Often this is done by reinforcing worship, helping others, reading and learning the Quran and remembering Allah (God) throughout the night by offering voluntary prayers - which is no mean feat especially if you’re observing Ramadan in a Muslim minority country.

US-based Islamic scholar Dr Haifaa Younis likens the heart to a crystal vase. Shiny when new but as it ages, the heart gets foggy because of anger, jealousy, competition, backbiting, attachment to the worldly life and materialism.

To cleanse or to purify one’s heart and to get rid of the factors that cause it too go “foggy” is a process, which doesn’t happen overnight and the whole month of Ramadan is a perfect time to do that cleaning to restore your heart in that shiny state as you let go of desires and put more emphasis and energy into worship, seeking forgiveness and maximising good deeds.

What observing Muslims carry beyond Ramadan are good habits that prepare them for next Ramadan, which will come in March 2023. Maintaining these newly-developed good habits by continuing the odd fasts throughout the year and keeping your faith strong is just as significant part of the process as undergoing the month of rewiring. After all, a month of starving the belly to feed to souls is useless if you bounce back to your old habits immediately after.

With COVID restrictions lifted, the UK saw more events during Ramadan that united not just observing Muslims but these events also enhanced interfaith relations between communities and religious leaders. To see open iftars around the world where non-Muslims joined fasting Muslims in breaking their fast at sunset showed a lot of promise of hope against a backdrop of rife anti-Muslim sentiment.

Similarly, there were few moments quite as humbling as witnessing displaced refugees united as they joined together for iftar set in rubble and chaos in a show of strength. It was a stark reminder to be thankful for the lives that we have - no matter what challenges we face on a day to day basis.

Gratitude and appreciation are two things that Ramadan and ultimately Eid bring. We never know what is around the corner and to be able to see the whole month is in itself something to be immensely thankful for.

To be with family, to be with friends, to be able to break the fast with water and food when there are many who will fast for months to come not out of religiosity but out of sheer helplessness, to be able to celebrate at the end of it with wonderful treats and all the trimmings around it all calls for gratitude towards Allah.

Fasting makes you appreciate what you can’t have. That first sip of almost-sweet water as soon as the sun sets; that first bite of a date or first mouthful of your dinner and that last cup of water or meal before dawn humble you to the blessings you have whilst training you to take everything in moderation and not waste.

The biggest lesson of it all, is that Ramadan is not just a spiritual bootcamp. It’d be a shame to make all the efforts in one month and then let all those good habits fly out of the window the moment Eid hits.

Instead, it’s essential to view the past four weeks as a training session to set you up for the year ahead and constantly seek to improve through worship, a controlled diet and in the conduct you carry when dealing with yourself and others. That is what I’ll be striving for, anyway.