Elegance is...

What would happen if we approached each day as if it were Ramadhan?

Our 30 days of fasting for Ramadhan is accompanied by watching one's own thoughts, words, motives and actions. But what happens after 30 days? In fact, what happens after one 'breaks' fast each day? 

When calligraphy, artistry, spirituality, poetry, history collide... 

Today, a receipt was delivered to account for a gifts bought for charity from a small home for handicapped children in Penang. The donation was made several weeks ago via a friend in Penang, and I mentioned that a receipt was not necessary. But when the receipt did arrived today, it spoke volumes of the sender and the ethics of the organisation itself. 

In contrast, another established organisation whom we've been assisting has never offered to do the same and did not send any receipt, despite being more established. 

Assisting brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith, one must ask oneself what it means to be honest and ethical in thoughts, actions, words.

For me, Ramadhan is more than just knocking down dates on a calendar. It is, each year, a new call to once again to do what we were not able to. God's only exhortation, in Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi's words, is not to be perfect but understand that one should never be ashamed to have fallen:

Come, come, whoever you are. 

Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. 

It doesn't matter. 

Ours is not a caravan of despair. 

Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. 

Come, yet again , come , come.

What would happen if we approached each day as if it were Ramadhan?

When Ramadhan is every day, 30 days lasts a lifetime. Therein is the True Elegance we seek each day...

Elegance

It

Is not easy

To stop thinking ill

Of others.

Usually one must enter into a friendship

With a person

Who has accomplished that great feat himself.

Then

Something

Might start to rub off on you

Of that

True

Elegance.

~ Hafez-e Shirazi