Dubai: From reining in their egos to to being more generous, residents have a variety of resolutions this Ramadan as they embark on yet another monthlong spiritual journey.
For British legal consultant, Mohammad Omar, Ramadan is an opportunity to renew the same ‘resolution’ of growing spiritually and giving back to society.
“Ramadan is training for the soul, to become a better person. It also heightens our sense of empathy, being mindful of others. There are so many ways to accomplish these goals,” Omar said.
For example, he tries to perform more voluntary religious deeds to be a more spiritual person.
“As for the spirit of sharing, inviting someone for iftar or providing a meal for the fasting person to end his day’s fast is an easy way to forge closer ties with others,” said the 42-year-old British resident.
As a Pakistani marketing professional working in a retail sector, Zubair Haidar struggles to find enough time to focus on spiritual activities and with Ramadan also being the boom time for retail businesses, finding a balance become all the more difficult.
“This Ramadan my goal is to make better use of time and find the right balance between work and spiritual activities. I want to bring in better discipline and spend more time focusing on introspection and worship,” said Haidar, who is a long-time Sharjah resident.
Yara Ra’ed Abdul Fattah, 20, a Jordanian student at the American University of Sharjah, said: “My Ramadan resolution would definitely be to give back to the community. I want to do more than just donate money this month. I want to volunteer my time to a charity or initiative. I think that’ll be a great way to try something new and help others.”
She said that she would volunteer with Ramadan Aman in Abu Dhabi to distribute food and drinks to people. “My friends and I decided to do it together as a way to encourage each other and do something fun together,” she said.
Ramadan is also a time when many people resolve to burn calories and lose weight, taking advantage of long fasting hours, but for 17-year-old Indian Adi Irfan, Ramadan is more about burning egos than burning calories.
“Fasting is not about burning calories but about burning ego, pride, and sin where you create a deep bond with Quran so as to attain Taqwa (God consciousness). I’m going to spend more of this Ramadan understanding the Quran as opposed to blindly trying to finish reading it,” said Irfan, who is Grade 12 student.
While adding that Ramadan presents a great opportunity to kick bad habits, he said: “Ramadan inspires us to be better people through charity, kindness and self-restraint. It is about breaking bad habits, not putting them on a pause. I resolve to carry out the training of this month throughout the remaining 11 months.”
Learning self-discipline and developing greater levels of punctuality are among the top priorities for many people and Ramadan is the month many believe can help them adopt these good habits.
“For me the number one focus this Ramadan is to improve punctuality in life and this I think I can do by being more punctual with salah (five daily prayers). Ramadan is a time to put a conscious effort in this regard and then carry it forward,” said Salem Kola, an Indian engineer, who has lived all his life in Dubai.
Among his other resolutions are reconciling with estranged people, and getting rid of grudges.
Apart from having spiritual goals many believers take Ramadan as an opportunity to quit smoking, lose weight and break other bad habits.
— With inputs by Tamara Abueish, intern at Gulf News
