{"id":1756,"date":"2012-08-17T05:40:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T09:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2012-08-17T06:09:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T10:09:21","slug":"the-final-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2012\/08\/the-final-fast.html","title":{"rendered":"The Final Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The waning crescent moon – the bright light of Ramadan recedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As per the Fatimid calendar, it is the 30th of Ramadan, and my final fast has begun. I spent the night engaged in ibadat<\/em> – praying Nisf al-Layl and the tahajjud<\/em>, doing tasbih<\/em> (also known as dhikr<\/em>) and Qur’an, praying salaam<\/em> upon the Prophets Adam AS, Musa (Moses) AS, Issa (Jesus) AS, and Mohammed SAW; and remembering the sacrifice of Imam Husain AS at Karbala. And, of course, supplication and dua<\/em>, for my hopes and aspirations, for my family and friends, for my children. <\/p>\n

There are literally only 15 hours of Ramadan left. However much Qur’an I read, dua<\/em> I read or tasbih<\/em> I perform, it’s not enough. Every minute of the past 30 days where I did not fully maximize my time towards ibadat<\/em> is lost. We bid farewell to Ramadan – alayk as-Salaam, Ya shehre Ramadan!<\/strong><\/em> – with regret for all that we did not achieve, but inshallah that regret will drive us to do more next year. <\/p>\n

And yet, despite that sense of vanishing opportunity, we are not immune to some anticipation for Eid, either. Partly because of the sense of satisfaction that will come from having completed another Ramadan, but also because we are hungry. It’s like graduating from college – the intellectual stimulation of the collegiate world is a bubble existence of its own, and at its close you will miss it, but there is also anticipation to get “out there” into the “real world” and start applying what you’ve learned. So too with Ramadan – but every year. The time of spiritual nourishment is almost at a close and it will soon be time to apply our souls to the task of living in the world beyond the one we construct for ourselves in Ramadan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As per the Fatimid calendar, it is the 30th of Ramadan, and my final fast has begun. I spent the night engaged in ibadat – praying Nisf al-Layl and the tahajjud, doing tasbih (also known as dhikr) and Qur’an, praying salaam upon the Prophets Adam AS, Musa (Moses) AS, Issa (Jesus) AS, and Mohammed SAW;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[99,45,24,27,28,46],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-eid","tag-fasting","tag-islam","tag-muslim","tag-muslims","tag-ramadan"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Final Fast - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Final Fast - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As per the Fatimid calendar, it is the 30th of Ramadan, and my final fast has begun. I spent the night engaged in ibadat – praying Nisf al-Layl and the tahajjud, doing tasbih (also known as dhikr) and Qur’an, praying salaam upon the Prophets Adam AS, Musa (Moses) AS, Issa (Jesus) AS, and Mohammed SAW;…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2012\/08\/the-final-fast.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-17T09:40:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-17T10:09:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2012\/08\/Earthshine_Ghouchkanlu900.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Final Fast - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Final Fast - City of Brass","og_description":"As per the Fatimid calendar, it is the 30th of Ramadan, and my final fast has begun. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}