Ramadan for introspection and empathy

Immersed in a whirlwind life that is always cluttered up by chaotic businesses when at times we are disconnected with our creator we need some moments, some mediums to plug us right back in. Ramadan is a month that provides for the Muslims with the correct holy socket to connect our spiritual cord with. A lot of the discontent that we experience in our daily life comes from forgetting who we are, who created us and who we are going to meet in the afterlife. We experience a void in our quest for the answers. It is again Ramadan that fills the void. Ramadan is a month for our quiet introspection and at the same time it is not a month for 'me time'; it is 'our time'. It is a time to feel for others, time to empathise with pains of the unfortunate and the hapless.
Quite naturally one winces at the idea of fasting when he needs to skip meals, avoid entertainments, and restrain from many temporal pleasures. Nobody is keen on depriving himself of things that are routinely deemed essential and that he is used to. But we should see fasting in a different light. We are so used to regular meals, so worn out with entertainments that at times we feel deadly dull. We die of boredom when trying a great variety of meals and entertainments does not satiate our souls. Your soul needs something else for self-fulfillment. Fasting at this juncture gives you a welcome break for self-realisation.
Fasting offers your hungry soul a vacation. Our body is always needy. All day long we cater to our body's needs. Fasting gives us a respite from the drudgery of maintaining those needs. Leaving the desires and demands of our flesh we find a divine space to concentrate on our spiritual health where we can put things in a different perspective. Up against the roar of an empty stomach when nothing in this world shines as a beacon, something inside drives you straight to the Almighty. As you begin to step away from your worldly needs, only for a while, you become more tuned to Him. It's a cathartic feeling for those who got this extraordinary spiritual taste, who have regularly been fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.
The greatest lesson of fasting in the month of Ramadan is how by feeling the pangs of hunger one can feel how hungry men and women are passing their days. This is empathy. Empathy is an art to develop a skill that is required in any job, be it the job of a software engineer or a philanthropist. Nobody would have chosen the career in philanthropy if he or she could not empathise with the helpless people.  Life is so loud, clumsy and distracting it becomes harder to sense what is going on around us. We are less aware of other people's feelings and pains. Our brain is naturally empathetic. But the mirror neurons in our brain that sparks empathy are less used as we enjoy living inside our comfort bubbles. Fasting in Ramadan reactivates those neurons when we share food with one who could hardly contend himself with a full meal of his choice. Islam teaches us to keep our empathy alive so that fraternity is promoted in societies.
On the Night of Power in one Ramadan, the holy Quran descended on Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh), the last Prophet of Islam, and he received its first verses in the Cave of Hira.
It is the Prophet who taught us how to celebrate Ramadan through days of fasting and nights of prayer: to honour each day of Ramadan as a day of patient endurance through fasting, and each night as a night of gratitude through prayers.
The Prophet demonstrated through examples and his personal sacrifices how this world is less important than the next, and how the body is less important than the soul.  In fasting, the Prophet taught the humanity step by step how to ignore the physical demands so that the spirit reigns supreme.
Abandoning food, drink, and sex was only a prelude to the next stage of greater significance: of conquering avidity and cupidity, lust and licentiousness; of liberating one's mind from flights of passion and fits of temper.
The core of fasting during Ramadan is one's willingness not merely to give up self-indulgence, but to feel the need of one's brother as his or her own. During the month of Ramadan we should ask ourselves how we have behaved with our parents, siblings, and community members, and how humane and patriotic we are.
In a quiet introspection we should look at our innermost self and identify the follies and sins that we have committed during our life. No time is better than in the month of Ramadan to express our penitence and beg for His forgiveness. While praying, fearing God and bearing in mind all the teachings and sayings of the Prophet we should always be prepared to leave this world at any moment.
Our last Prophet said: "The strong person is not the one who can wrestle someone else down. The strong person is the one who can control himself when he is angry" (Sahih Bukhari). What a sterling truth for the humanity to learn for establishing peace and avoiding wars and conflicts in this world!
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