A LETTER FOR RAMADAN

…And you came again o blessed month. This year I hope for the
better. I hope for a better relationship with my Lord. I hope for a
better understanding of how weak I am and how strong Allah’s love
can make me. You came again to soften my heart which had been
hardly beating during the year. It needed oxygen. It needed to
remember His holy names. It needed a purpose to beat again. And
what can be a better purpose than pleasing the Merciful?!
Indeed, His pleasure is what every one of us should be seeking.

I longed for you to be here for so long Ramadan. Every time I would
catch a glimpse of the calendar. I missed how joyful I felt during this
30-day journey.
You are a breeze, a light in the monotone darkness of the other
months when I tend to lose myself into fruitless actions that
consume my time, efforts and slowly my precious youth. You are
likened to a blazing road that leads my nomad heart to the endless
source of life. You lead my heart to its one and only Owner. My
extremely merciful and caring God Whom I praise for gifting you to
this ummah. To His sinful servants, His forgetful servants but at
least we are His. And being His is the best we can wish for.

O beloved month, you make me have a chance every year to renew

my imaan, fulfill my book of good deeds and be as our Prophet
advised us to be, the best version of ourselves. Or at least try to,
because we both know I am not able to achieve it fully. What Allah
wants from me is my will to put efforts into making my self better
during this blissful time. You help me do so Ramadan. You make me
bloom, o month of the Quran. Dear Ramadan, don’t leave without
improving me, even with a small good habit left from you. Don’t
make me continue to be a hopeless prisoner behind the bars of my
ego. Please don’t…

 You fill me with happiness o month of generosity and forgiveness.

And It took me some years to understand the reason behind this.
For one month I was doing what I was created for. Praising and
worshipping my Lord. That was the reason and I thank Him in every
breath I take for making me feel this way. I thank Him for filling me
with spiritual tranquility and making me notice how wonderful life
can be when you satisfy your duties as a human being and
therefore, be closer to the King of the kings. I can feel Ramadan
somewhere in the panorama of a clear summer sky, somewhere
between two minarets that can be compared with two hands of a
person who is willing to reach the throne of the Creator, in the
ether. I can feel this month in the smile of the children running
around the mosque, in the fresh bread being shared, in the tears of
a soft-hearted believer who is forgiven. 

As Rumi said, “ There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s

emptiness”.
That hidden and solemn feeling is only experienced by the one who
fasts and it is an ultimate gift from Allah the Almighty. That
pleasure is extremely difficult to put into words because it’s not
from this material world is from the sky and only the Lord of the
skies can describe what comes out of there. Fasting is a blessing
and my heart beats out of ecstasy when I realize the impact it has
on one's behavior. In my behavior. I am fascinated by the effective
solutions Allah gives through Ramadan in order to improve the
relationship between us and Him. And my heart beats more for
whom it should. Out of love.Out of praise for the One who gifted me
this month.For the One who wants to see me happy and grateful.
My heart beats for my Lord.

This is a letter for you, Ramadan from a youngster. A letter I know

will remain unread but I needed to write with my tears as the ink
and my feelings as words dripping out of my head down my cheeks
falling into the blank paper which waits to be held in the hands of
the reader. My heart needed to send a letter. You can name it as
you wish. A reflection of my emotions, artistic lacking prose or even
a love letter. Maybe you won’t know any of this dear Ramadan but
my Lord will and that's what makes me relieved. Knowing that He is
there and will always be there for me.

Love,
Selma