After Ramadan

Fatma Bayram

Sometimes we want to stop time and live some moments forever, but time, luckily, doesn’t listen. It passes as it always does. Time flows in the same speed for everyone everywhere, but depending on the situation we find ourselves in, one day may seem like an entire century, or like the blinking of an eye.

For me the moments that I wish wouldn’t end are the ones when fasting women, tired from suhoors and iftaars, leave their homes, where they live their worldly exile in various situations, at an early morning hour that bears witness to their sincerity and fill one of God’s houses to listen to His words. As one recites the Quran in their presence, one almost sees with one’s bare eyes the angels piling up on top of each other in this place enveloped by the sincerity emanating from the hearts.

As we exit Ramadan, the month of Quran, in this state of mind, I would like to humbly offer some advice to prepare ourselves for the next Ramadan inshAllah: First and foremost, take care of the business of reciting the Quran fluently and as well as you can. For this to happen, do not neglect reciting every day, do your recitation out loud, and listen to reciters that recite well. Do not think that intellectual pursuits have to necessarily conflict with the effort of reciting the Quran correctly, beautifully, and continuously. If we think this way, it is inevitable that we will gradually dry up like a river whose physical connection to its spring has been severed. Maybe this is the reason why our scholarly and intellectual world disappoints us and gives off coarser sounds with every passing day.