Holy month of Ramadhan and togetherness

By A. Mustofa Bisri

REMBANG, Central Java (JP): One day during this holy fasting month of Ramadhan, I went on a trip with a friend. During the journey he looked rather pale, so I said to him, "Why don't we break our fast? We are on a long journey, so it is permitted to break our fast before sunset."

My friend refused the suggestion, saying that it would be burdensome for him to make up the lost fasting day after Ramadhan.

I admit that it is bothersome to fast in a month other than Ramadhan because fasting while other people are not is a difficult thing to do. This fact makes us realize how simple it is to fast together during Ramadhan. Togetherness makes fasting a lot easier.

Yet there are many among us, including those preaching about the benefits of the fasting month, who overlook this fact. There are even a lot of fasting people who do not realize the importance of togetherness in their fasting.

As in other sacred rituals, togetherness is often emphasized, but many people simply overlook it. Muslims, for example, are encouraged to perform daily prayers, shalat, in groups. While praying to God they are also supposed to use "we" instead of "I" when referring to themselves.

This also applies to tithes, zakat, and the haj pilgrimage. However, because people do not recognize this trait, many people fail to appreciate it and learn a lesson from it.

Men have a tendency to ignore the importance of being together. God, therefore, repeatedly reminds them in His holy books and through His prophets of the importance of togetherness. It is up to the men whether or not they will understand His message.

In the holy Koran, for instance, God states: "O, men, We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may get to know one another. The noblest of you in God's sight is he who is most righteous. God is all knowing and wise." (49:13)

From this quotation we can conclude that humans were created different from one another so that they may appreciate each other. Difference must not become an obstacle to us appreciating one another. Difference is not something to be proud of, but it is something to appreciate. The ultimate thing to be proud of is piety.

If piety is understood as performing all of God's orders and restraining from all that He forbids, then one of the important things to obey is appreciation of one another, which is part of His orders.

Appreciating one another may guarantee harmony in the community, thus making life a lot easier. And harmony is only achieved if each individual appreciates diversity in human beings as a trait, instead of regarding it as an obstacle.

Unfortunately, often there are people who are better-off than others. It may be wealth, power, skill or other factors which cause some people to forget to appreciate diversity and thus to fail to appreciate others.

What is worse is that some people have abused their privileges -- either purposely or unintentionally -- creating a wider disparity between groups in the community. This will, in the end, disrupt harmony.

For more than 30 years the New Order government gave all of us a bitter lesson. The Indonesian nation was taught by the New Order rulers to be materialistic, relish all that is worldly and to live in fragmented groups, each identified by their separate uniforms. Our current condition is the result.

In this holy month of Ramadhan, we should all reflect upon ourselves and reform our ways so that we may live as a nation and as God's creatures.

The writer is a prominent Muslim scholar.