Public Forum: by Shaheen Ashraf

Ramadan, a month of fasting and abstention from various physical pleasures came to an end on Oct. 12 this year. Most Muslims made special efforts to overcome anger, pettiness and other nasty habits that are so inherent in our species.

While acknowledging our frailties, our weaknesses,our vengeful nature in being human and accepting these as essential characteristics, we unfortunately tend to forget our divine abilities, to forgive, to forget, to accept the other (personally I do not like the word 'tolerate' so I use accept). These qualities need to be polished. We do possess them as we all have 'The Divine' spirit within us.

This month is not only about the physical hunger and thirst, but most importantly, about self-restraint and increased consciousness of the presence of God in our lives. It is also about our attitudes of gratitude, about meditation, about charity, and self discipline, about sharing with the less fortunate .

The actual idea behind this month of abstention, is that if we can practice these qualities for one month, it would also continue in the other months of the year. This is a blessed month for Muslims because we believe that this was when the code of life started being revealed to Prophet Muhammad. This was in early seventh century, and was completed over a period of 23 years.

I believe that our souls have a pure side and Ramadan is expected to bring this nature into focus so we could practice our spiritual Jihad, overcome our anger, our violent tendencies, etc. align ourselves with qualities of the Divine.

The dates of this year intrigue me, Ramadan/Rosh Hashanah/ Yom Kippur/Sukkot/Thanksgiving/Eid coincide as if the Divine Universe is sending us a message 'celebrate together' as you were created a single community and divided yourselves later due to your own inherent tendencies. So says the Quran and so I follow in wishing all my Jewish, Christian, Muslim friends and family members (and all the other religious denominations that are celebrating their fetes at this time of the year), a wonderful and happy celebration. Gratitude and peace in the coming year.

- Shaheen Ashraf