Ramadhan is a month with many positive overtones. The most important being the feeling of ensuring the difference in the lives of those who deserve compassion and care.
It is easy to ignore others’ needs and own luxuries, but very difficult not to feel the hunger of others by being hungry. Here lies the basis of Ramadhan, which teaches everyone to feel for the community.
It is a month of culmination of values, practices and perspectives and a resolution to address the shared values in a meaningful way. It is unique to see the whole community practising the same culture together for a month, thus making a difference in the lives of many others who otherwise would have been left unattended, uncared and unheard.
Sara bint Ahmed bin Farid al Aulaqi, the founder of Cure8Art, is passionate about solving social issues and making a difference in the lives of those stuck up in the beginning, middle or fag end of their life due to some issue or the other. She feels that a vibrant society can resolve many small issues which otherwise would have become big due to the long wait.
“We can become partners in progress by taking up some issues and resolving them and what could be the better time than Ramadhan to take a resolution to do something good for others who deserve the most’’, says Sara while explaining her idea of an inclusive effort to address social issues.
She is working on the idea, which is likely to take shape after Ramadhan. “Let the actions be louder than the words and wait till it rolls out’’, she says.
Many others like Sara are passionate about humanity and its role in society. They are working on many levels to address the social suffering, taking the idea from the holy month of Ramadhan.
Ramadhan is a great reminder that ‘others’ sufferings are equally important as ‘ours’, as hunger and thirst that ‘they’ and ‘we’ equally feel.
Ramadhan calls for open-minded compassion, a sense of core community values and service — all put together.
The practice of fasting together derives from the idea of the unity of thoughts and compassion towards the needy.
Ramadhan’s principle of self-restraint is also guided by the policy of welfare of all. The tools that help develop restraint are fasting, prayer, the study of the holy book and actions that lead to justice and harmony in the community.
@patkaushal
