My Ramadhaan of Sharing

It’s only a few days after the Blessed month of Ramadhaan has left us, and I have to admit that I really miss it. The peace and serenity, the heightened spirituality of people around you, the sound of the Glorious Quraan, the moderation in eating, drinking and sleeping. Things can just never be the same out of Ramadhaan, no matter what we do. But, nonetheless, we have to be thankful for everything and if we didn’t have this special month and all months were the same then we would never know the difference. Ramadhaan might be over, but Alhamdullillah (Praise be to Allah) the lessons that we have learnt in Ramadhaan can stay with us forever.

This Ramadhaan I found myself having to share, but the sharing that I had to do was very different from what you would expect to share in Ramadhaan. See, my grandmother came to stay with us in the first week of Ramadhaan, and so I found myself having to share, not my food, or money, but my time and space. This type of sharing is something that I think I have taken for granted. I mean, it’s easy to give someone some of your food, or to give them some of your money, but having to give up your comforts and share your space with someone and having to spend time seeing that someone else has all that they need  is a bit of a different story.

So it was that I found that the things I usually take for granted, suddenly appeared to me as real gifts. Whereas usually I am at liberty to spend my time as I want to, now I found that I had to make special time to do the things that I wanted to do. And whereas before my granny arrived, my space was my own, now I had to be mindful of her needs as well. For instance, before using the bathroom I had to make sure that my grandmother didn’t need to use it, and instead of staying up late and reading or doing whatever I usually do, I had to make sure that the lights were out early because being an old lady, my granny had to sleep early. I found that nothing was my own anymore, the prayer mat I usually perform my salaah on was given to my granny so that she could perform her salaah, even my hairbrush was now being shared with my grandmother since she had forgotten to bring her own one with. I have to admit that initially I found it strange to have to share everything , but after a while something strange happened, it didn’t matter anymore, I just stopped caring, Alhamdullillah!

One day we heard the story of a man who hit his son when his son said to him that he would bring “his pillow” for the father. The father hit the son because he told him that nothing in this world belongs to us. This is such an important lesson and Alhamdullillah that I was given a chance to learn it.  The things that I had believed to be mine was actually not mine at all, it had only being given to me through the will of Allah Almighty, and now Allah wanted someone else to make use of it as well, and I had to be thankful for that, because at least Allah had not taken it away from me completely, and besides this was only going to be a temporary situation.

So in addition to this Ramadhaan teaching me how to share, it also taught me how to be grateful for all the comforts and all the ease that I usually have in my life. Also, the price of having to share was a small one to pay when we consider the blessings you get for having guests over and taking care of old people.

So yes, Ramadhaan may be over for this year, but I truly hope that these important lessons I’ve learnt will never leave me. Inshaa Allah.

PS: I apologise for the long dealy, but Inshaa Allah I hope to be starting with my Great Women in Islam posts again very soon.

Image from: http://laughingsquid.com/sharing-is-caring-hd-dvd-hex-code-t-shirt/