Ramadan Karim, Generous and Honorable Ramadan

This trinity is especially evident in the fasting month, the month of Ramadan, the ninth of the Islamic lunar calendar (current year 1442H). A lunar month that begins with the new moon and lasts between 28 and 30 days, until the next new moon appears. It is the month when the body, mind, and spirit are synchronized in a special way so that we remember and reaffirm the holistic way that we are human beings.

For the body, it is a training stage because you must stop eating and drinking and having sex during the daytime, without abandoning the necessary activities and duties of family, work, and study. An effort that is rewarded at the end of each day, with joy and integration with family and friends, around prayer and food. And practices that are established in the Koran (Sharia), as the supreme law of Islam and that must be absolutely halal, that is, allowed and beneficial to humans and nature. Training that develops willpower, endurance, perseverance for the success that is achieved by overcoming each day of fasting and that is reflected in the body, among others, in detoxification processes and improvement of the digestive or circulatory system, which generates a more agile mind, in addition to reducing calories, providing longevity and well-being.

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For the mind-intellect, because it reflects on the practice of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan; the month in which the Koran is studied and recited to fulfill the revealed law (Sharia). A month in which discernment, learning, and the expansion of knowledge allow us to consider the ability to adapt to new situations because we change schedules of work activities, food, family relationships, and friends in favor of emotional and physical stability.

And finally, the summit and total balance, the spirit, which develops, strengthens and increases dimensions such as appreciation with the practice of gratitude; solidarity with inclusion; empathy with compassion, especially for those who do not have daily food, as well as the capacity for forgiveness; the reconnection with nature because we stop consuming so many unnecessary things.

In this way, for Muslims, Ramadan or the month of fasting is a period of pause from daily life, it is a time of reflection, of defining or redefining goals; to look within oneself; to meet family, friends, neighbors. And, above all, to share and help the other.

A month in which it is heard or read: Ramadan Karim, which means to wish a generous and honorable Ramadan for all human beings without any distinction.

Fanny Ochoa Ochoa (Asiah)

Center for Higher Islamic Studies and Ibero-American Halal Institute

Twitter: @ IslamicStudies6 and @HalalColombia

Instagram: institutohalalcolombia

E-mail: centrodealtosestudiosislamicos@gmail.com