Ramadan isn't just a time for celebration, says Sharjah-based Dr Bilal Abdul Alim. It is also a time to reflect upon life and be thankful.
And Abdul Alim knows gratitude.
There was a time in the 1960s when he was a young and rebellious Texan named Julius A. Phillips Jr, and he was headed for a lifetime of heartache.
Raised Christian in Minden, Louisiana the young man soon gave in to the temptations of a life with friends who could only be described as bad company.
Despite indulging in illicit drugs and premarital sex, Phillips Jr finished his undergrad years of university where he studied jazz music and chemistry.
It was during those studies that he took a minor comparative religion course in which he compared the world's religions and was soon of the opinion that only Islam was tolerant and accepting of other religions.
"For me, Islam was the full set, it was the big picture," he said. "It showed there was unity of all prophets."
But he still refused to convert.
In 1975, during his second year of medical school, Phillips had a dream he now deems divine intervention.
"I was commanded by a strong and firm voice to embrace Islam immediately. The voice kept repeating the words: ‘This is your last chance – you know Islam is right.'"
The next morning, the phone rang – it was his ex-roommate from Washington who told him that he, too, had a dream that he should give Phillips his new Muslim name.
"A few days later, I drove to Washington and accepted Islam in the presence of my dear friend."
He took the name Bilal Abdul Alim, finished medical school and opened a successful practice in Houston.
In 1992, Abdul Alim took a medical posting in the UAE for a private family charity and never looked back. He still works for the charity.
Abdul Alim says Ramadan gives him a chance to be grateful to Allah for a second chance at a good life.
"I wouldn't even be alive today if I wasn't a Muslim," said Abdul Alim. "I was living a destructive type of life. Many of my guys died or are in jail."
"I think of Ramadan as a period of purification, a period of developing self-restraint," he said.
