Fasting

Well, it's Ramadan, and I'm remembering that I am a horrible and spoiled faster. I have no energy and get headaches.

But I do think it is a fantastic spiritual practice and I plan to continue with it. The first days are always the hardest, and I have been sick with a bladder infection that doesn't seem to want to budge. I am easing into it though.

I always feel good and renewed when I complete the fast. I have more energy and focus once I get all the sludge out of me. Fasting removes many built up toxins from the body.

I am working on reading through the entire Koran, which is also a part of Ramadan. I am already about 1/5th through it, which is unusual for me. (It's roughly the size of the New Testament). It's not the most exciting reading, but I do think it is important to know and read your religious texts. Actually I think we should all read as many as we can, not just our own. I have tried to read most of the major ones over the years and I have learned from all of them.

One thing that I have taken away from my reading this year is that I don't agree with all of the Koran, and I don't have to. I don't agree with 100% of anything I read.

The Koran is an ancient text, like most of them, that contains many old and outdated ways of thinking. But it also contains many gold nuggets, which I am grateful to retain.

The one slogan from Al-Anon that I really like and held on to was, "Take what you like and leave the rest." I think that applies to most things in life.

I am also trying to teach my children about the texts and also about why we fast, which is actually what drew me to Islam.

Islam is a religion of peace and equality. You can not feel empathy for someone if you have not suffered a similar experience yourself. When you feel hunger, you know how terrible and debilitating it is. I say this knowing full well that I also have the option to eat at any time, which is an entirely different experience. That said, I think Ramadan is the closest way we have to really feel empathy that most people never experience.

It is very easy to come up with reasons why other people should be hungry, which is what all of us do to some extent in the Western World.

Otherwise, we would not have hunger. Certainly there are resources to feed (and educate for that matter) everyone. But we have different priorities.

Every Muslim, regardless of how much money they have, is required to fast. And you must give proportionately to your NET WORTH a "Zakat", or offering, which goes directly to the poor. There is no middle man, and there is no getting around what you owe to the world community.

I am very proud of my Muslim faith and it makes me extremely sad that it is so misinterpreted and hated in much of the world. I hope that some day people will see that there are many wonderful things about Islam. Like everything, there are also some negative things as well. But it seems a shame to me to focus only on those when the whole is so great.