On the Hypocrisy of Faith Without Compassion

06/03/2020

Every year, I fast for Ramadan. It is not for faith, as I fail the most important test as a Muslim: professing my faith that Allah is the one true God. It is actually my faith in connecting spiritually to others that drives my Ramadan participation each year. And in general, I believe logically that an omnipresent, omnipotent God would take many forms...so maybe we can all chill on the exclusivity principle ha.

I do not fast for personal recognition either. I post to social media and engage others in discussion to bring color and connectivity to something people choose to experience every year (or intermittently as part of a diet) but that MANY more of us live every day as a matter of circumstance. Walking a day in someone else's shoes builds humility, esp when those shoes are worn through the sole. 

I don't fast to claim a latent "Arabness" either. Was born and raised in the US, and am very clearly American to most I meet. But it is an inseparable part of my Lebanese and Syrian heritage and history. So much so that I find moments of peaceful, cultural reflection throughout the fasting month help fill in the edges surrounding my "purpose garden" so to speak. And those moments help keep me connected to that Arab heritage while I spend my time almost exclusively in America.

So fasting for me is really about the faith I have in other people, my need to empathize with the physically poorest (but perhaps spiritually richest) of us and a desire to remain connected to my family culture...all while keeping heart, mind and body focused for a period of spartan physical and mental contemplation.

Think of it as a realignment of spirit with a humble context: that so many live in this world without food and water and shelter and the blessings of a secure survival. So those of us that have all those things all the time...we can lower ourselves, humbly, to the status of those who go most days without. And in doing so, get closer to each other...which I think is God's plan all along anyways!

For those of you unfamiliar, Ramadan is one of five Pillars of Islam. You can think of the Pillars as requirements:

1. Acknowledging Allah as the one true God (and Muhammad as his prophet, PBUH)

2. Daily prayers

3. Ramadan (the annual fast), the 9th month in the Islamic calendar

4. The pilgrimage to Mecca (officially late July this year)

5. Donations to the community