Love in Ramadan

Before we ended the class on Zoom last Friday, I asked the children if they wanted me to read a storybook and they said “Yes!” So I quickly looked through our Ramadan books and grabbed this - Love in Ramadan. It’s been so long since I last read it that I couldn’t remember what the story was about. I opened it and saw that the author had signed the book and remembered that it was a gift from my dear friend a few Ramadan ago.

The story is about a boy and what his family members love to do during Ramadan, such as hearing the adhan at fajr, giving gifts to others, and seeing the smiles on the faces of orphans. I had to prevent the melancholy from creeping into my voice as I read the parts about walking to the masjid for terawih and going out to nature to observe Allah’s Greatness in His creations. 

Then I asked the children what they loved doing during Ramadan. They told me that they loved to pray terawih with their family, wake up for suhoor, fast during the day, break their fast together, and read the Quran. MasyaAllah I was astounded. I don’t know if I would have given any of those answers when I was at that age. May these children grow up loving Ramadan and all the acts of worship connected to it. 

It made me think of what I love doing during Ramadan. What is for sure, I can’t revisit some of the things that I love about the blessed month for now. It feels more like I’m rewriting my love story for Ramadan. A third of the month has passed and it has definitely been melancholic. Memories of past Ramadans keep flooding my mind, together with the faces and places that I love. 

It’s a great reminder that those memories we have are part of the great blessings that Allah has bestowed upon us. And the One who gave them have all the right to take them back. Does it mean that we worship Him less now without all the faces and places that we love? Not at all. It is truly a test of our sincerity and total reliance on Him.

May we find true sweetness this Ramadan in our spiritual retreats without all the attachments that we used to have. As Ibn Ata’illah said in his Book of Aphorism, “Deprivation hurts you only because of your incomprehension of God in it.”