A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Zahid Hussain

Good Morning. And Happy St George’s Day!

Ramadan is also upon us and Muslims the world over are getting ready to fast from sunrise to sunset. As a British Muslim, both England’s Patron Saint and Ramadan are important to me. This year is an extraordinary one where the usual norms have been discarded because of the global pandemic. Mecca, the holiest site in the Muslim world is closed to pilgrims. Unprecedented. Unimaginable.

Ramadan is the month where we invite others to our homes or they to theirs to open fast or as we call it to an iftar and spread the spirit of Ramadan. We feed the hungry, we help the poor and we give as much charity as we can. We pray together as a community late into the night and the mosques are filled. But not this year, no mosque is open, there will be no community iftars.

Yet, there’s a part of me that tells me that this year we can truly live the spirit of Ramadan. Ramadan was never about being seen in the mosque. It was always about cultivating God-consciousness or Taqwa. Usually, during the last ten days of Ramadan, worshippers cloister themselves in the mosque in what we call I’tiqaf, self-isolation to bring us closer to the Almighty. I believe that this year Muslims have been given the chance to perform a communal I’tiqaf not just for ten days but for the entire month of Ramadan.

Almighty Lord, You are the All-Seeing, the All-Knowing; we are grateful for your unending and eternal forgiveness. We pray for your infinite and unceasing mercy to cleanse us and, to guide our hearts, to replenish the flesh and to renew our souls.

Amen. And have a great St George’s Day! Show less