Life is certainly very odd, isn't it? How is it that we take for granted the things that are most important to us, only crying our eyes out when we have lost them? Remember back to September 11, 2001. On that day of horror, which has gone down in history as one of the defining moments of our modern age, three thousand people began the day just like any other day. When the day had come to a close, those three thousand ordinary folk would be dead at the hands of fanatical extremists. Each of those three thousand people had set off from home in the morning to go to work in the office, muttering goodbyes to wives and children as they went out the door, assuming that like every other day, they would see them when work was done. Others of the three thousand were killed on board aircraft, realising only too late that their journeys would end in disaster. How agonisingly painful it was to listen to some of their voice messages left on mobile phones to loved ones who had left their phones turned off. “My darling I love you," was the message left by some to their wives and husbands, as they knew they were about to die. Tomorrow is promised to no one. We may think we have everything sorted out in our lives, making plans for what we will do next year and the year after. How hard many of us work, often from early in the morning till late in the evening, to provide security for the future for our loved ones. Then a tragedy comes along and snatches that security away. The tragedy may not be something as despicable as the terror attacks of September 11. It might be something as simple as a road accident or a suddenly diagnosed illness which we never dreamed would affect us. But none of us can ever be sure what the future holds. If you have ever been to the kind of funeral where it is traditional for the minister to stand up and say some words about the deceased person, you will know how death faces us very starkly with reality. No one at such a funeral will stand up and say that the deceased person took three foreign holidays a year or had eight Italian suits in his wardrobe. No one will stand up and say he had a good job or others at his beck and call. What they might say at such a funeral is that he was a good man, a good husband to his wife and a good father to his children. They might say he was honest and kind and that he was hard-working and trustworthy. In other words, what is most important in life is brought so clearly before us in death. How many suits a man had will not delay his going to the grave. Nor will the job he had or the money he had in the bank. On the day he meets his Maker he will have to come up with something better than that. Like all the other things in life which are so important to us, Ramadan is a gift we too often take for granted. Busy with rushing from one iftar event to another in fancy five-star hotels or racing from one supermarket to the next to buy that essential ingredient for our Ramadan meals, we can often forget what Ramadan is all about. Just like life itself, Ramadan is a time to enjoy ourselves with the good things of this world, but we shouldn't mistake the things of this world with life itself. Life is too precious for that. It is only when it is taken away from us that we realise that. Those children of ours at home, fighting upstairs to use the bathroom in the morning, are really the most important things in our lives. If anything were to happen to them we would be heartbroken. But so often we miss the chances life gives to us and fail to see the woods we are in for the trees all around us. There will be people reading these words who, last Ramadan, read them sitting next to someone else. In the ensuing twelve months their spouses or their parents have passed away and this year they are reading the newspaper alone. Life is like that. So what can we do about it? Are we to be morbid? Are we to allow the prospect of death or tragedy to paralyse us from enjoying life? Are we to give up the good life altogether and concentrate, instead, on our prayers, hoping that they might save us from the punishments our sins have deserved? Ramadan is the answer. As well as being a time to visit family and friends to share food together, Ramadan is that special month of the year when we put our lives into perspective. We fast for Allah's sake. We do it because he told us to do so, not for any other reason. In the holy Quran we read: “O Ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you As it was prescribed to those before you, That ye may learn piety." 2:183 Learning piety surely means learning how to put our lives into perspective. We may have a good job or not, we may have money in the bank or not, but all of our lives are dependent on the Maker of life itself. When the Muslim's forehead touches the ground five times a day in prayer, his job and his bank account are of no importance at all. There are no kings or princes in a mosque, only simple Muslim men trying their best to serve Almighty God in the way He told them to. This Ramadan, enjoy all the good things that Ramadan has to offer. Egypt, in fact, is one of the greatest places in the world to celebrate the holy month. Visit Hussein and see the stalls of Ramadan lanterns. Drink the many special drinks of the holy month and spend time in the mosque reciting Qur'an. But most of all, don't take Ramadan for granted. When the holy month is over, don't let it be “just another Ramadan," like any other. Instead, let its real meaning touch our lives and the lives of those around us. Hug those children when they come down to breakfast, then give thanks to God that you have them. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Let the message of Ramadan help us to remember that. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, is a lecturer at Al-Azhar University . The author of eight books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com.
