Journal Your Ramadan – Day #2: Prayer/Forgive

Prayer is a tool of reflection, of spiritual closeness and of peace, and certainly in Ramadan time, it’s even more meaningful because of how close we feel not only to God, but to each other and our spiritual sides.

A friend of mine said recently that “Ramadan for me is like that weird feeling of warm balmy magic in the air. Every second seems heavy with sacred air” – something which I can definitely understand and relate to, because of the way that it feels as if there is something in the very air which not only calms us, but makes us feel the strong bonds to our religion and to our beliefs.

I’ve grown up with emphasis on prayer, from waking up to call of prayer and my father humming nasheeds, to the little, basic intonations we have when doing things like eating our food, washing our hands, leaving our home, the things we wear. One of my fondest memories of prayer are of my late grandmother, who would pray all day on super-speed and who for some reason, I always associate with the purity of the colour white – perhaps because she wore a lot of it, but also because to me, she was the kindest person and the most loved person in my whole family  (and particularly because she would terrorise everyone and tell them off, but she never even raised her voice at any of us because we were her favourite grandchildren!)

Prayer means different things to different people, it can be a physical act, it can be quiet contemplation, and it can be expressed in various ways which mean different things to all of us. During Ramadan, my family and I try to cut down on the superficial things, less television, fewer games and fewer books, and focus on the real things that matter.

My sister urged us all to dream big when making duas (requests) in prayer – pray for anything you want, and you just may get it, so I will urge you to do the same. She says it better than me, so in her words:

This is the month that whatever duas you make are accepted, why not use it to change your life into the one you dream of?

Make your dua’s really big, make dua about stuff that you are passionate about that gets you excited,  don’t be half-hearted in your dua’s, ask for stuff that gives you butterflies when you think about it.