Ramadan reflections

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh sisters and brothers dearest to Allah,

all praises and thanks belong to Allah, Most Merciful, Most Forgiving.. may Allah forgive all of our sins and help us to maximise our remaining Ramadan ameen ya rabb. complete salutations upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW.

i know it's been a long time since... i have attempted to write quite a number of times but they just didn't seem to work out. so anyway yesterday i experienced my first iftar out this year's Ramadan... and the moment I came there, the place was so buzzed and packed with people and food in hands. and then as I took a seat and got a view of the whole place in front of me, I was struck by this reality. I thought to myself.. "is this the reality of our people?" when in other parts of the world, so many children are dying of starvation, so many people are celebrating freedom out of oppression, so many people are still suffering in oppression and we were spending some of the last 30 minutes of our fast of the day filling plates after plates even though our stomach can barely cope with them.

i was just telling my friends the other day that food is treated like a natural resource. and to the extent that we have food like it's an infinite resource too. we just don't know how we can ever run out, there's just always food. and there's just always more.. food. now, we must appreciate that this is all from Allah... and we must give all praises and thanks to Allah for providing us with so much food and may this blessing make us closer to Him and not otherwise. but in this holy month of Ramadan, the point of it is not to embrace more food, we did that so much already for the other 11 months... are we not willing to take this break to discover that we have so much more to explore within ourselves outside our nafs... when will we spend the last 30 minutes of our fast of the day just being intimate with Allah, and praying that it wouldn't be our last fast... praying that we will wake up to another Ramadan... praying profusely that He forgives all of our sins... when will we break away from our luxury and go back to our reality?

we are still in Ramadan... i know and i believe there is something in all of our hearts that are dying to be fed. i believe in all of us so much that we are able to reconnect with Allah in ways that we didn't know we were capable of... i believe in all of us so much that we can change for the better. i believe wayyy more.. much that Allah will make ease for those who want to seek His pleasure sincerely...

And those who strive in Our (cause),- We will certainly guide them to our Paths: For verily Allah is with those who do right. (29:69)

none of this was intended to offend anybody, it is just a piece of reminder if we may benefit from it... and it is for me, first and foremost, who is constantly struggling to battle against the nafs. may Allah forgive all of our sins. may Allah help us to maximise our remaining Ramadan and seek to be closer to Him ameen ya Rabb. please forgive any of my shortcomings reflected in this piece of reminder. and greetings upon Rasulullah SAW.

salaam.