Food for Thought: Replenish Your Mind, Body & Soul during Ramadan

1. Food for Thought: Replenish Your Mind, Body & Soul during Ramadan According to popular perception, Ramadan is mostly seen by the outside world as a period of the month wherein Muslims all over the world fast until dawn to dusk by giving up on food and water completely and engage in being more religious. Yeah that's correct you are not even supposed to have a drop of water or morsel of food. People have almost made Ramadan synonymous with food which includes dieting, self-deprivation or gluttony and in my opinion, that's a very reductionist approach to the holy month per say. This month on the contrast should be seen as way of controlling one's weakness if anything else. For example if you are into binge drinking or just a lazy bum who procastinates a lot or guilty of gluttony, quick to anger, or not regular with your Salah this month should be seen as your rejuvenation period wherein you revive yourself from the past mistakes and let go off the detrimental habits or activities. It's a period wherein you delve deeper to find your personal, emotional and spiritual connect with God by way introspection and analyzing your actions. Such is the significance of this month that for every act of kindness or good deeds, gains you the rewards 7x more than usual and hence we generally see people giving in to more charity during this month by way of zakat or sadaqah. Ramadan could be seen as personal journey to one's self-development, by overcoming one’s weaknesses and ascibing to the will of Allah rather heeding to one's desires. It's an escape into one's orbit of innate humanistic values by letting go material desires by exercising self-control and restrain. This self-control gets exercised not only by giving up on food but by also restainig oneself from acting, seeing, orating anything negative. It's generally observed that men begin to grow beard and women observe a more modest way of dressing up. This self-restrain works three-fold on your mind, body and soul. It's come to common knowledge that fasting has a lot of health benefits as explained by medical science which helps in keeping your physical self healthy as the body undergoes severe detox and rids you off the harmful chemicals in the body. Further, since one is encouraged to re-establish one's connection with God by way of salah and Qur'anic recitation, it helps keep one's mind, calm and sublime, thereby rejuvenating the soul. And lastly, since one keeps away from the nitty gritty of negativities and daily squabbles of life by concentrating on more constructive avenues, the mind gets its long over-due of being relaxed and stress-free. Get your Ramadan collection at: EastEssence Content Source: PRLOG