The holy month demands not just piety, but refinement of the human kind. This is what I feel of Ramzan. It is a great practice of self-restriction without any external influence. During this holy month, each human being who observes fasting is undergoing a hard trial to mould himself or herself. They abstain from the urges of their bodies, including hunger, though they are accessible to all these resources to practise a moderate living.
The restriction is not self-torture, but a self-imposed one while we try to understand how hunger is felt by the destitute. This also should help us recognise the value of food and prepares us not to waste food anymore.
Fasting also helps one to be sympathetic to the feelings of others. Thus, through Ramzan fasting, one turns towards the next pillar of Islam, zakat or mandatory charity. This helps develop a sharing mind through the self-control practised during the month.
In my life as a professor, I have observed that the younger generations are more aware and attentive about the religion while being modern at the same time. Thus, they voluntarily or involuntarily turn towards our religious symbols. I think this might be the influence of foreign countries visited by a considerable number of people from our societies.
This is also reflected in our society as a major change in the dressing style of at least a minority of Muslims in the recent times. Earlier, the pious elders wore just dhoti and shirt but now they are a little ‘Arabised’ when it comes to their apparels. Islam, according to me, has not imposed any kind of specificity in the attires we wear. The dressing style in Arab countries is particular to their geographical characteristics.
The most prominent example of change is that our mothers in the yesteryears were unfamiliar to purdahs worn by the present generation. Maybe, they tend to exhibit their identities like this because of a sort of insecurity.
(Dr A. S. Abdul Rasheed is the head of the Chemical Engineering Department at TKM College of Engineering, Kollam/ As told to Sham Mohammed)
