How I've Yearnt For You

I'm truly grateful this year for Ramadan. I don't know where I'd be without it year upon year; it's given me a chance to just step back and re-evaluate my life, and without the constant thought of what to eat, I can instead focus on doing something else. Sure, Ramadan involves days, mornings, evenings like the rest of the days of year, but it gives me an excuse to try and do something that little bit extra, make more of an effort. And since it's fallen in the summer holidays, with no work to worry about, it's given me ample opportunity to properly make use of my free time.

Ramadan is quite weird, where you get yourself into a routine, that when it's all over, you've got to remember that you're not doing it any more, and you have to re-adapt yourself to normality. The same can be said for Taraweeh; everyone gets into "we must finish the Quran by the end of the month" mode, people flocking to the mosques, all standing in line side by side with people burping out contents of their scoffed-down Iftars, while the Imam zooms verse through verse, occasionally stumbling, in an attempt to round the night off one thirtieth closer to the end of the Quran. And when it's all over, it's all over. We go home, and look forward to the same next year.

Yes, we have the weekly "what we should be doing in this month" khutbahs, and everyone gets way excited over the vibe (and what to eat at iftar), but it is something we should keep up for the rest of the year. It should be like a staircase, with every Ramadan involving you working to climb that next step, and maintaining that level for the other 11 months, before trying for the next step the next Ramadan, but sometimes we do find ourselves tumbling down.

At a time of such immense reward (multiplied up to 700 times), maybe we should tone down on our usual activities and focus on more religious things. I'm not a big fan of doing something, or stopping something, for a month and then going on with normal life for the rest of the year, but now is an opportunity that can't be missed, and we never know if it's our last.

Maybe our normal lives are the routine we have to snap ourselves out of.