Ramadhan

Tomorrow will be the first day of Ramadhan and Muslims will begin their month-long religious observation of one of the five pillars of Islam.

This time, I will be spending Ramadhan with my family in Putrajaya.

For us, Ramadhan is not only a time of abstinence, but also self-reflection and moderation.  And by moderation, that includes food and lifestyle.

We tend to eat less during this time, so the various "Pasar Ramadhan" hardly gets a visit as our family has always favored home-cooked food for breaking fast.

I remember once, my Mom actually made the green jelly for a fully home-made cendol as we wanted so much to have a taste of it, and Dad bought one of those hand-operated ice shavers because we wanted to have ABC.

Nowadays, we are more likely to have the more ordinary chilled chocolate drink, or the black jelly cincau or just plain orange juice or rose cordial to accompany a simple meal of rice with vegetables and fish or noodles.

Although I really can't understand the frenzy that people get over food during this period that is supposed to be a period of abstinence from worldly excesses, that somehow I feel that we have lost sight of the reason for Ramadhan in the first place.

I guess it has become a cultural thing, that we have managed to commercialise Ramadhan and Eid al Fitr to such an extent that these two occasions have become reasons to satisfy food cravings and a single day of celebration has been dragged into a month-long festival of "open house" food orgies.

However, I sincerely hope that all Muslims in Malaysia spend this period of religious observance to ponder the fate of Muslims and the direction we as a nation are taking to protect the sanctity of our faith from harm, both seen and unseen, either obvious or obscure.

With the Muslim nation in such disarray, I find it extremely petty of us living in bountiful Malaysia to create social tension and invite violence that would cause everyone lasting harm.

We should all reflect on all the good things that we have, think about others who are less fortunate than us, and try not to dwell too much on what we feel as our entitlements, as I can assure you, no matter how difficult life is, there are others who fare worse.

I shall also pray that hopefully this month of Ramadhan will allow our Muslim brothers and sisters all over the world to see beyond the obvious and put aside our petty grievances such that we can unite for lasting peace and betterment of the Ummah.

To all Muslims, may we all have a blessed Ramadhan.