A Prayer for Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar.  It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community.  This year, it began on Monday, April 12 and ends on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Ramadan is the commemoration of Muhammad’s first revelation and annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It lasts twenty-nine to thirty days, from one sighting of the crescent moon to the next.

During the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from dawn to sunset. It is meant to be a time of spiritual discipline — of deep contemplation of one’s relationship with God, extra prayer, increased charity and generosity, and intense study of the Qur’an.

It is both a serious time and a time of joy, to be spent with loved ones. At the end of Ramadan there’s a big three-day celebration called Eid al-Fitr, or the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast.

O God, help us in this darkened period of human history to remember once again who we are and what the purpose of our existence is here on earth. We have become usurpers of the human state, parading as human beings without full awareness of what it really means to be human.  Rather than being a channel of Thy grace for Thy creation, we have decimated the harmony of life on earth, pushing many of the species (including ours) to the verge of extinction.

O God, awaken us at the beginning of this new era from the dream of negligence and help us to fulfill our responsibilities as representatives of Thy sovereignty here on earth with essential duties toward each other and toward the whole of creation …Shower your grace upon us in our moment of greatest need, protect us from ourselves, and allow us to be a beacon of light rather than a dark cloud for the ambience that surrounds us. Only with Thy aid can we create that peace within and harmony with the outer environment, both natural and social, for which our souls yearn…

—  Seyyed Hossein Nasr
from Prayers for a Thousand Years, 1999

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and an Islamic philosopher. He is the author of many scholarly books and articles. He speaks and writes on subjects such as philosophy, religion, spirituality, music, art, architecture, science, literature, civilizational dialogues, and the natural environment. He has also written two books of poetry (Poems of the Way and The Pilgrimage of Life and the Wisdom of Rumi).