Ramadan Journal '18 | The Journey

I pray that this Ramadan greets you all in the best of health. To any and all writing exams during this month, know that every one of us is rooting for you and keeping you in our prayers. May the sacrifice and struggle be rewarding through to the very end. Power through! You've got this. To any and all who have written exams, I pray it's been smooth sailing and that the results you are praying hard on, come through. And lastly, I wish for all of us to experience a fruitful, blessed month...the one we've been yearning for, even if we've not quite realised it yet. May it be the month in which we learn selflessness, compassion and the true meaning of hope. May we remember the oppressed, the impoverished and the hundreds of thousands who are our brothers by faith but who escape our thoughts and prayers far more often than we'd like. May we finally grasp the art of praying, not just for us - in the selfish, worldly, mundane ways in which we do - but for the people who need it the most. And may we appreciate, just a little more, all the little ways in which we have been blessed even when we are most undeserving of it.

Every year, the journey is a little bit different. Every year, we grow a little older and wiser, we ache for something that we didn't quite ache for the last time, we hope to conquer something greater than we did twelve months ago. We're battling new demons or maybe we're just battling the same ones we've been battling for the last year but they've grown a little stronger and we've grown a little weary. We've seen our faith break and repair and break in its frailty and we're trying to strengthen the fragile ropes that hold it together, and really, isn't that the beauty about this month? The relief of a clean slate, the tender hope for spiritually reviving what we long believed to be dead, the faith that floods back in after dragging our tired hearts through the dirt...it is a gift. It is a light in the dark and I pray that you follow it and find your way home.

|   “Ramadhān has come and they ask you what have you prepared for it? Tell them a broken heart, a shattered soul and eyes ready to release oceans of tears.” - SOURCE

I'm taking the Journals in a different direction this year; it's going to be a bit more freestyle and a lot more me and I hope that as you follow me on my journey, yours is everything that you want it to be. May our prayers ascend to the skies and be blown into acceptance, may the dreams we harbour seamlessly weave themselves into existence, and may our souls float through the open doors of spirituality, redemption and unwavering faith. May it be a journey filled with all the light and mercy that has been promised to us in the most beautiful of ways.