EDITORIAL Share Ramadans mighty prayer
On Nov. 17, over 1.5 billion Muslims
worldwide, including some 8 million people in North America, began Ramadan, the
holiest month of the Islamic lunar year, by observing a month-long period of
prayer, almsgiving and fasting from all food and drink during daylight hours.
Fasting is one of the five Pillars (duties) of Islam, and all able-bodied
Muslims are expected to take part, beginning at about age 12. The purpose of
Ramadan is to intensify devotion to God (Allah) and to sharpen a
believers awareness of the needs of the poor and hungry of the world.
Fasting, an ancient religious practice common to all world
religions, is a proven way to awaken the spiritual senses in a body dulled by
satisfaction.
Voluntary fasting, even for short periods, reminds us that hunger
is not an idea but a visceral assault on our most basic human instinct to
survive. Wealth, it has been said, is the power to eat, whatever and whenever
you wish. Fasting interrupts that security momentarily and brings us into
solidarity with those millions who fast involuntarily in a world where feast
and famine are neighbors, often in the same city.
Fasting reminds the strong that hunger and poverty are the worst
forms of violence against the weak, an insult to human dignity and an affront
to basic fairness in our world.
The coincidence of the dates of Ramadan (Nov. 17-Dec. 17) this
year to the Christian observance of Advent (Dec. 2-25), as well as key Jewish
holy days such as Hanukkah (Dec. 10-17), offers some rare common ground to
three major world religions of the Bible, which share a spiritual ancestor in
the figure of the Patriarch Abraham, called the Father of the Faith
by the worlds Muslims, Jews and Christians.
The events and aftermath of Sept. 11 have exposed the roots of
global suffering in a way we could never have imagined. All of us, rich and
poor, hungry and sated, now know a deep and common vulnerability. Nineteen men
committing suicide have shaken the stability of the world economy, redrawn
geopolitical alignments and threatened the security of billions of people.
Terrorism has shown that it can infect and strike from the very heart of
civilization, using its technologies, transportation, communications and
financial systems to hold the world hostage.
But crisis has also forced to the surface an urgent, shared desire
worldwide among ordinary people of goodwill to quickly build bridges of
understanding between cultures and faith traditions. The beliefs and energies
of those traditions might offer the only hope for resolving conflict before it
spirals out of control in what some suggest is the intended and ultimate
terrorist act, to precipitate an explosion of hatred between major world
religions. In biblical terms, the threat we face together is the sort of
baleful, poisonous spirit that can be confronted only by prayer and
fasting.
Many groups around the world have long been calling for prayer and
fasting as the only path that can lead us beyond ancient quarrels and systemic
injustice to a future without terror.
For Christians, the invitation is a chance to recover spiritual
resources that have lain fallow and unused. Prayer and fasting are good for
body and soul and offer a chance to recapture the meaning of Jesus words,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be
satisfied.
Christians will soon mark the end of a liturgical year with
scripture readings filled with feverish apocalyptic imagery. We are about to
enter Endtimes. Then Christians will enter the season of Advent, a time of
penance and preparation for proclaiming the core mystery of the Incarnation,
the belief that, whatever state the world is in, God is with us, intimately
sharing our human journey toward the hope of universal, all encompassing
wholeness.
Ramadan is impressive in its potential to marshal spiritual
discipline and power to create an enormous community of purpose. Christians
might take note and be inspired to share in so mighty a prayer for justice for
the poor and hungry. Imagine the world that could emerge beyond our present
terror if we all joined to pray and fast together.
National Catholic Reporter, November 23,
2001
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