Today’s person is unusually weary, uneasy, anxious about tomorrow, and doubled over with the panic that unexpected surprises may erupt at any moment. Surely, there is the enormous influence of certain pessimism-mongers and some media outlets spewing pitch-black ideas day after day—if those can even be called ideas—as instruments of gloom and hopelessness. Perhaps they are the actual cause of this pitch-dark picture; for whenever they open their mouths, they only mutter anger, spite, hatred, and rage. While they mutter, it is as if the cellars of their subconscious have burst open and everything inside spills everywhere, pumping new omens of misfortune into the people's spirit each day. Without ever changing their attitude, without distinguishing right from wrong, without considering what this costs the people, the same things are repeated daily with a fixed logic of resentment and ambition. Moreover, by portraying some segments of society as if they were potential criminals in the eyes of others, an atmosphere of conflict is persistently engineered between them; even worse, everything is pushed into dead ends so that the state appears helpless, thus opening the door for certain anti-democratic formations and extending an invitation to them.

In such an unstable climate, it is not only emotional individuals—whose reason and judgment often buckle under the weight of their feelings or brute force—but even people with a measure of common sense who occasionally fail to abide by reason, logic, or sound judgment. Whether due to the tension saturating the public atmosphere or the influence and power some hold, troubles and unrest can swell further—or be made to appear as though they have swelled. At times, the longing of helpless masses for a new world contributes to this, intensifying the sense of turmoil. As a result, nearly every segment of society is driven to search for alternatives. It should not be difficult to imagine what crowds mired in such chaos might do—or be made to do.

The warm atmosphere of Ramadan

Fortunately, in a time when intertwined crises are being experienced on all sides, we once more find ourselves in the warm atmosphere of Ramadan. While everyone stumbles their way through dusty, smoky paths, we feel as though we are enveloped in a paradisiacal clime, and by becoming thoroughly spiritual, we sense our souls reaching a “cool and peaceful” safety deep within.

Indeed, in these days—when some people darken time and space in the most merciless way and turn everything into a kind of hell—if we can raise our heads and look with the eye of faith, we will feel that divine mercy, which never abandons us, flows into our hearts once more through the enchanting proclamation of the crescent in the sky, the magical expression of mosques and minarets, and through the mysterious tongue of the luminous messages they display. In this way, our spirits are lifted into the spacious climate of spirituality, and we respond to our fortune with smiles. In fact, such a gentle leaning of the heart toward eternity begins as soon as the three blessed months (Rajab, Shaban, and Ramadan) appear on the horizon; each day and each night until Ramadan emerges carries a preparatory tone, and when the time comes, they assume a quality that pours light and serenity into people’s hearts. Ramadan is the final link in this three-month journey with Khidr, the clearest horizon of closeness to God, and the most open vantage point from which the conscience beholds the beyond. Ramadan is a month of favors and compliments, when all the beauties of existence pour more clearly into the hearts of believers, and when the refinement, finesse, and luminosity in their spirits find full expression. Indeed, its lively and vibrant state is like an echo of the heavenly realm’s attention toward us.

Paradise on the other side of Ramadan

People with believing hearts who witness Ramadan often find themselves in such a love and excitement, as if responding to celestial voices rising pitch by pitch in the depths of the heavens. They enjoy the best of melodies of spiritual delights, each according to the depth of their faith, knowledge of God, and love. During the self-expression of the believers’ hearts—the most natural instruments of Ramadan’s tune—their heartfelt sounds and otherworldly delights, which embrace their entire being with a different overtone every moment, assume such qualities—particularly during the night hours—that every soul fortunate enough to achieve complete concentration cannot help but murmur: “Is Paradise on the other side of Ramadan?” They almost sense it as a haven of reunion with the Almighty.

Especially during the pre-dawn meal, the calls to prayer and praises for God give their own hue to this general atmosphere. They allow hearts to sip otherworldly states in those deep minutes, revealing many surprises and wonders—though everyone may not be able to perceive this depth.

While the proclamations of God’s greatness, of faith, and of praise overflow from the minarets into our homes; children scurrying here and there in the bustle of the pre-dawn meal, young men and women whose bearing reflects a youth spent in sincerity, discipline, and devotion, and elders whose faces and eyes bear the dignity of belief like monuments of awe—all of them, resembling different instruments of a single choir, each unique yet sharing a common rhythm and tone of excitement—all of them, with their sincere state in which the eye of the heart is turned toward the realm beyond mundane phenomena, appear so deep, so full of meaning, and so heartfelt that their general manner brings to mind people racing to behold the Divine Beauty on the slopes of Paradise.

Seamless pieces of light

There is no other span of time in the world so enchanting, colorful, and profound as the days of Ramadan. With each arrival, it comes in a new manner and with new richness. It comes, and within its wholeness, it divides into its own segments of varying colors. Its pre-dawns are always mantled in an indigo tulle from the depths of the heavens… its morning calls to prayer and the prayers observed become suffused with a unique enchantment not found at other times… its days, like mysterious corridors of intertwined hopes and expectations, draw those who fast into a feeling of reunion… Through the delights of the palate, the moments of breaking the fast always ring a bell of the final reunion deep within… The tarawih prayers let our souls feel the festive anticipation of meeting with the Friend… and Ramadan, with its seamless pieces of light and color, constantly whispers distinct things into our feelings.

In complete unity, it pours onto the slopes of our hearts with the dazzling colors of the beyond, always making us sense wonders that lie beyond time and space; and often we feel as though we are walking through a magical realm outside this world. So much so that throughout every hour of the day and everywhere we walk, we feel a shower of divine blessings descending upon our spirits; and like bees that dive into flowers and strive to drink their essence—savoring a new delight each time—we experience the fullness of a fresh inspiration and abundance at every moment, sharing a different delight each time.

Thus, those characteristic breezes of Ramadan never entirely cease at any hour; they continue unbroken… and within hearts that have assumed the hue of Ramadan, alongside the eternal honoring and special divine compliments, countless images begin to materialize—about so many things: from the shared excitement felt in our homes, streets, mosques, schools, and barracks, to the scenes that deepen in our imaginations and become legend-like; from the feelings shaped by our faith and convictions to the careful interpretations of our reason. These images come into view and envelop our souls. They stir our emotions and desires to a new pleasure at every moment and pour into our hearts as a distinct delight.

Time filled with successive heavenly feasts

Hearts that have assumed the hue of Ramadan sometimes directly experience these bestowed meanings, and sometimes they sense them in the emotions or faces of others… And sometimes—because of an inner dullness—some neither hear nor savor those blessed hours and minutes, which long to converse with them, to recite poetry to them, and to pour melodies into them. And thus, a span of time filled with successive heavenly feasts keeps flowing by like a river, yet cannot find the chance to express itself even to the degree of a single drop.

Since it is the human mind that understands Ramadan, the human conscience that senses it, and the human heart that tastes it, just as we need eyes, ears, reason, and judgment to perceive and evaluate the existence, we likewise need—crucially need—reason, consciousness, the activation of the heart, and keeping it vigilant in order to sense and savor Ramadan.

Note that most times, we enter and exit the brightest days and live through the most colorful hours repeatedly, yet do not even notice them. And sometimes, thanks to having good concentration—we taste moments that are not outwardly so bright or colorful with such delight that we feel as though we are in the gardens of Paradise, drinking from its fountains.

Above all, for these spiritual beauties to reach our hearts and become a source of delight, our inner perspective and orientation must be well attuned. If this can be done, Ramadan suddenly transforms and pervades us so deeply that we feel our world of emotions continuously blooming, and we find ourselves in an atmosphere overflowing with meanings and feelings.

Everything around us suddenly gains a tongue, and like an orator, each of them delivers unheard sermons into our souls and utters words never spoken before: the pre-dawn times and deeds, calls to prayer and the worship, minarets and the luminous messages hung between them, streets and their lamps, sounds of the Qur’an rising everywhere, the melodious recitations of memorizers, the breaths of the imam and faces of the congregation, the cries of children and the composure of the elderly… what truths they whisper into our spirits! Thus, they lay out such feasts for our spirits through their declarations without letters or words.

With feelings and meanings of utter surprise, almost every Ramadan pours upon our hearts—whose desires are as vast as universes and whose aspirations are as expansive as eternity. Like earth quickened with rain, it revives our spirits, promises a fresh resurrection to our feelings after their moments of death, makes our consciences more responsive, and it flows into us by turning into delight. It flows with such force that it makes us forget all our grief and sorrow, and we see it as though it were woven from poetry, emotion, and intertwined dreams. We feel liberated from the apprehension of seeking another source for deepening, and we share the delight of freedom our souls attain by worshipping the Almighty. We echo the words of Rumi, “I have become a servant, I have become a servant; I have found true freedom within captivity to God,” and we let out cries of joy.

Ramadan arrives almost every time so full of brightness that even those irretrievably enslaved to their carnal soul, whose inner worlds are layered with darkness, most definitely still sense something within its atmosphere. They begin to voice unexpected feelings, sensing that their inner world has entered new states. Even though some with heedless hearts continue to doze, carefree souls keep living unrestrained, deadened consciences collapse under the contempt born of familiarity, Ramadan will still flow quietly into our inner world with its tones of light, color, and sound. It will unlock even the rustiest of locks with its calls to prayer, pre-dawn meals, fast-breaking dinners, and its tarawih prayers; it will certainly speak to even to the hardest of hearts. Indeed it will, for Ramadan carries the power and luminosity to convey such truths, and the human soul possesses the nature and capacity to receive them and give them voice.