Opportunity to foster harmony

The holy month of Ramadan has just started with great hopes that it will bring good tidings and positive fortunes for worshippers. Ramadan is the month for self-cleansing; body and soul.

Devoting a whole month for meditation, soul searching and prayers is certainly redeeming to believers. Observing Ramadan in the full spiritual sense is the fifth pillar of Islam, as all Muslims healthy enough to practice it are obliged to respect and fulfill it.

Fasting is acknowledged as a recipe for good health, not only by Islam but also by medical science. Renowned dietitians are now conceding that fasting is healthy as it lowers sugar level in blood and cleanse the body of poisonous elements. Human organs can also get a month of rest too. Yet, all these health benefits are dependent on abstinence from overindulgence when breaking the fasting.

Unfortunately it is common practice for fasting people to stock up with too much food and sweets during Ramadan and end up eating way too much at the expense of their health when they break their fasting.

Yet, the main benefits of fasting are spiritual. This is the time for people to get closer to the teachings of Islam, end hostility and animosity between them, lend support to the needy and become more compassionate.

On the national level, Ramadan is the occasion to end all wars between Arab and Muslim nations and wage instead peace and harmony among them. There are many domestic and inter-Arab conflicts, some of which are cruel and bloody.

Ramadan can, therefore, offer an opportunity to foster harmony and brotherly relations instead of bloodletting and oppression between and within the Muslim world.

We must all join this occasion in the prayer for wider and deeper relations between Arab and Muslim peoples and nations.