Isaac Karim: "Overcoming the pitfalls of this world ..."

Many Christian churches are full of “testimonies”—conversion stories in which people tell about moving from destructive ways of life into their new faith where they find health and wholeness. Similarly, Islam also has many conversion stories about men and women whose lives turned around once they embraced the faith on a daily basis. Isaac Karim, a lab technician at a hospital, talks about his spiritual journey in this way. For him, Ramadan is one pillar along that pilgrimage. Here are Isaac’s words as told to journalist Thomas Gilchrist …

    I was sort of at the bottom of things in my life. I had a lot of failures. I had three marriages that failed and this kind of thing. I got involved with the Law for drugs, alcohol, the whole nine yards. I was on the brink of destruction you see. When Islam came along, it sort of pulled me out of all of this.
    The whole religion helped me out in my life. And, Ramadan is just one of the five pillars of Islam, you know what I’m saying? It is a duty that’s incumbent upon all Muslims. It stresses purity and discipline. It humbles you, and it puts you in the same situation as poor people, less fortunate people, oftentimes via hunger and thirst and this kind of thing. Not to submit to your lower self. Ramadan is a test. It’s a test, not to have sex, not to have water, not to have food during the daylight hours. It tests your character, your dedication, your faith.
    After my first Ramadan, I felt that I had overcome the pitfalls of this world. I felt that I had achieved a great situation in terms of myself. It was a great accomplishment for me.

    The earlier Ramadans were more difficult. It was the things that I was used to doing, like for instance I used to smoke cigarettes—but you wean yourself. We are creatures of habit, so we have to wean ourselves from things. Not being able to smoke, not being able to drink, not being able to eat, or have sex—whatever the case may be. Just for a certain period of time. It was hard. Sometimes you’d just forget, and you might drink some water. You have to be God-conscious, conscious of God at all times, because being a human being, we will forget. If you make a mistake, it doesn’t abort your Ramadan for that day, if you truly forgot. If you know what you’re doing, and you do it, then you fail and you have to make it up at the end of the month, or any day during the year.

    Completing Ramadan is an accomplishment. It’s like putting on a stage play, or something like that, and having it be very successful. At the end of Ramadan, you actually feel like you’ve achieved something. That’s why we have two feasts. It’s a great accomplishment for the human being.
    Ramadan is something that we do for Allah, but actually, we’re also doing it for ourselves.

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