The Deepest Call in the World – The Call of Hunger
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
On a warm and hot evening, Hamid and his friends were playing outside, in the garden, Hamid being the big, smart, little mischievous guy decides to be the seeker and starts counting. As he counts, “oonne, twwwooo, three”, he was quickly interrupted by a voice, “can anyone give me some food”. Hamid alarmed by the voice turned around and walked up to the gate of the garden and looked here and there, “hmm, nobody is here, maybe I could be dreaming, anyhow back to the game” he said in a sluggish slang.
But then as he started counting again “Fooouurrr, Fiivvee, Siixx,” Again that small voice interrupted “seven, eight, can anyone give me some food” Hamid was now a little bit angry, and he screamed “is anyone of you fooling me” no reply came. So he walked back again to the gate and was just about to leave, that’s when he noticed beside the bush lay an old, perished beggar. “Oh!! So it was you who was calling me all this time” he went near him and said “uncle, I will bring you some food don’t worry, come into the garden and sit in the bench.”
He quickly went inside the house and went to the kitchen, he took some bread and a glass of water and walked on, but he stopped quickly and started to think “if this man has fallen due to hunger then ma and pa will also fall because they haven’t eaten anything since this morning”. So he rushed to his parent’s room. “Ma, pa why aren’t you eating any food since morning, won’t you faint”, he asked in a quite confused mood. “No beta, we won’t faint if we don’t eat two meals or drink some water” “then how did that uncle fall down and, he was also asking for food” asked, the even more confused Hamid. His mother said “No beta, these beggars in the street have not eaten for days, but we are not doing that, we are fasting, which means you eat some food early in the day and the rest of the time till evening we don’t smell or eat a single food item not even water, so beta go quickly and give this food to the uncle, he might be waiting there for you.”
Just as his mother told, Hamid rushed to the garden and gave the food to the beggar, the thankful old man had nothing to give, and he neither had the energy to speak. But he gave him a big smile, and walked on with the food. Hamid felt that smile was so heavenly. Hamid went back in with his game and as the sun began to set the shiny crescent moon began to rise. He went back home to his parents and asked “why are you fasting?” His mother replied “For us Muslims it is an obligatory deed to fast, from morning till evening, it is compulsory because we should feel the small portion of hunger the beggars feel, but fasting not only means avoiding food, we should also keep away from bad words, bad thoughts, bad ideas and all bad things should be avoided and we should pray a lot to God.”
Hearing all these words Hamid felt enlightened and declared, “Tomorrow I will also fast, so that I don’t have to eat food” “but you will break it in the evening” said his mother. “Break it, how do you break a fast?” asked Hamid. His mother replied, “To break a fasting means that by the time the evening adhan or the call of prayer begins we can start eating, we break the fast by saying a dua and start eating with dates. Hearing all this Hamid goes outside and sits beside the pillar admiring the beautiful crescent moon, and in that period of silence, the adhan erupts, people across the streets stops doing whatever they were doing and rushed back to the house for it is the time for breaking the fast.
The only feeling that all creatures fell equally is not the feeling of happiness, guilty, sorrow, excitement but it is the feel of hunger. So friends let us envelope ourselves into the divine month of Ramadan with good thoughts and ideas. Ramadan Kareem!!
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