Brethren, I had gone to the mall, as usual, as a matter of necessity- to procure those essential items for daily living. After all, we are all fated to quest for the unattainable; we are all ‘condemned’ to the pursuit of the impermanent. Visitors to the mall usually had to pass through the gated entrance, collect a pass from the security personnel before gaining access to the parking spaces within the Mall premises. Just before I arrived at the gate, one of the security personnel had apparently picked up a quarrel with the owner of the car in front of me. Thus when I got to her presence, she was still in a state of rage. She was muttering obscenities and pouring invective on the driver who must have done enough to merit such imprecations. Now by the time I came face to face to her, said as follows: “that is the way they usually behave; during Ramadan, they comport themselves in the best manners possible; as soon as the month passes, they go back to sins again”.
Brethren, I brought my car directly to a halt at the gate, looked straight into her eyes and said to her in no uncertain terms- ‘that was highly instructive”. Other security officers around wondered exactly what was happening. ‘Wetin be your own’ they all chorused. In order not to risk another scene I immediately pressed the accelerator.
But the lady’s statement had already been etched on to my memory. Her statement kept hacking back into my consciousness. I found myself in a dialogic encounter with myself and my own other: “was that man a Muslim? What could he have said to this young lady? Why is it that some among my brethren usually throw caution to the wind by conducting themselves in manners which are unbecoming of their Quranic identities? Is it not true that throughout Ramadan we were indeed angels in constant communion with the Almighty? We represented the best that Islam demands of us. We were loving and caring to members of our family? Husbands suddenly became dutiful. There was no argument with my sister on the house-keep allowance. There were no disagreements on the school runs. My sister at home became the ‘Khadijah’ of today, not the ‘wife’ of Prophets Nuh (a.s) and Lut (a.s) of yesterday. Suddenly she became very cooperative and supportive of her husband. Her tongues became busy not with imprecations and indecencies but the remembrance of the Almighty. She was not popular during the month as the enfant terrible sister in the neighbourhood. She was fasting!
Now how do we account for the for this return to the spiritual ghettoes and the remits of religious infamy? Why is it that immediately Ramadan comes to an end some of us usually become the exact antithesis of what fasting in the month came to make out of us? Why do we find it easy to become highly irritable and irascible in our dealings with our fellow compatriots contrary to the lessons we learnt in the month that the hallmark of faith is the ability to be patient while the world expect us to be petulant; that the gravitas of spirituality consists of outstaying crisis and tribulations while humanity expect us to be feckless entities at the mercy of the tide?
Brethren, I came to the conclusion that the man who made the young lady lose her cool was probably a Muslim. This explains her reference to Muslims as “angels” in Ramadan. But why should we be become angelic and catholic during the month only for some of us to become demonic immediately the month comes to an end?
