by Adam Jones

I enjoy fasting. I mean, I enjoy it and I hate it. For someone who loves food, fasting becomes a major disruption to my rhythms and routines.  Even now, as I write this, I am watching the clock; waiting for it to strike noon so I can eat my lunch. Fasting is my way of breaking those habits. However, one thing I am learning is that God is not as impressed with the act of fasting as I am. It’s not that He doesn’t care. It’s just that He knows how quickly my piety can lead to self-righteousness. I, like many others, end up suffering from the same affliction that man has been battling since very early in our existence: taking good intentions and making them larger than God Himself. 

by Wissam Yousif

Ramadan has two faces.

Most people see its happy face. Ramadan is a happy part of the year for Muslims, and no one can really tell why. On one hand, Muslims have to fast Ramadan anyway, so they are not looking for an extra blessing, but rather a fulfillment of an ordinance, a Pillar of Islam. On the other hand, they talk about a month that is especially generous in its blessings, “Ramadan Kareem,” when God multiplies His rewards for good deeds more than the rest of the year. It sounds like He doesn’t care for benevolence, for example, throughout the rest of the year, the way He cares for benevolence in Ramadan.