Mariam Zaiat: Finding what "we've been hoping to share all year"

Whether you’re Muslim or not, you can appreciate this spiritual challenge: We love families and friends—but sometimes months pass without seeing each other. In a lot of families, weddings and funerals become the rallying events. Part of what Muslims love about Ramadan is that it’s an entire month when daily schedules change dramatically to make way, in part, for sharing with family and friends. Here’s the story of Mariam Zaiat, an American student hoping to graduate with a masters in occupational therapy.

(Please Note: Today is an important day spiritually for many Americans. It’s the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Many still mourn the death of Imam W.D. Mohammed. Many are looking for constructive spiritual responses. Click any of these links to continue your spiritual reflections today.)

AND HERE ARE MARIAM’s WORDS: 

Around the age of 12, I started attending Saturday night lectures and meeting more people at the mosque. That enhanced my own questioning, my research and my practicing as a Muslim.
    At school, a lot of people ask me questions like: Do you get tired when you fast? Is this hard? What if you’re sick? Some are really interested and will ask a lot of questions.
    But, at the end of the day, the person fasting has made the decision and they’re doing it because they see a much bigger picture behind this. We’re not just fasting from eating and drinking. We’re fasting from anything that is negative in our lives. We’re taking advantage of this month to better ourselves as people.
    I’d like non-Muslims just to try fasting for a day. They’ll find it truly is a humbling experience. For example, I really love cheese pizza and during Ramadan I’ll see cheese pizza during the day or I might smell cheese pizza somewhere, yet I know I can’t have it. I begin to think of all those people in the world who are hungry every day and may see or smell food, but they know they’ll never get the food they need. The whole month is a self-discipline and self-awareness program like this.

    Ramadan isn’t sad. At the end of each day, there is so much joy with everyone who has been sharing the experience with you—family and friends. It’s always amazing to me that, throughout the year, we always talk about how we want to get together with family and friends. But you know how it is. Life’s so busy with all of our different schedules that it rarely works out.
    Then in Ramadan, everybody has the time and we gather for dinner. We spend that time together that we’ve been hoping to share all year. I find that so amazing each year.

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