Don’t be surprised though if you find yourself feeling like you would rather keep going until the next sunset to keep feeling as good as Ramadan made you feel.

The path we follow doesn’t always lead to the destination we expect.

The final day of Ramadan is a day of excitement and joy. We have almost reached our destination.

When we begin a journey we usually start with expectations of what will occur, what we will see, who we will meet, and what we will do when we arrive. By the time we arrive at our destination, we may have changed so much from the journey itself that the original goals and expectations no longer have the same meaning.

In fact sometimes, the journey itself will have become more important than the destination. On this final day of Ramadan, it is important to look at the reasons we chose to embark upon this fast, the things we have learned along the way, and to orient ourselves to where we have arrived.

Chances are that you have learned more than you ever expected to. Certainly you have learned more than the simple words in this book would convey by themselves. Now the question is, what will you do with it?

If you move past pain you find joy.

Pain is often difficult to deal with. Suffering in this world can seem unbearable. Sometimes it seems that the burdens of this life will never go away.

They always do though. Pain is a gift from the Creator that allows each of us to prove that we are worthy of finding joy. Suffering allows each of us to move up to the next level of mindful, spiritual, and fulfilling existence.

Only when you endure the pain, will you find the pleasure. When you fast each day, sometimes it seems unbearable. You are thirsty, you are hungry, you feel tired, or you feel weak. And yet, if you suffer through, you agonizingly wait for sundown, and then when you are surrounded by family and friends and you know that you did it. You survived, you made it!

You deserve to enjoy the cool lemonade, the savory lamb, and the crisp tangy vegetables. You have found the joy.

The same is true of all suffering and all pain. On the other side is joy. As long as you know this, you will always succeed.

We commit wrongdoings. There is no shame in owning up to them.

There are no secrets from the Source. There are no perfect people. Each of us have made errors and will continue to do so. The Creator knows this. The Creator will forgive us for these misdeeds.

Perhaps admission of your misdeeds to your fellow flawed human beings would cause more harm than good. You do not have to do so. You only have to admit the truth and acknowledge that you have done wrong to the Creator.

In admitting your wrongs, you stop hiding your misdeeds not only from God but also from yourself. Only then can you begin to live the life you were meant to lead. Otherwise, you are living a lie.

All existence is written by a larger hand.

Those who claim that there is no God are ignoring all the evidence in the Universe. Perhaps there is no God that is an old man in a lab coat. There is no God that looks like George Burns. There is no God that is anything that we can begin to understand.

God is incomprehensible. God is everything. God has neither name nor sex nor color nor form. God is. The word Allah is not a name. Lah is indicative of there being one God, one Universe, one totality. In Arabic, the word is indicative of female. Al indicates one and only and describes a male word. Put the two together and you have Allah. The one and only God that is neither male nor female and that cannot be described except through his 99 attributes, also known as the 99 most beautiful names of God.

It is this hand that has written existence and left a signature in clear sight for anyone to see. The Universe is composed of mathematics and geometric shapes. One among many shapes is known as the ‘golden spiral’ and is the basis for tornados, whirlpools, the human ear, tonal structure, sea shells, growth patterns of leaves on plants, and even chemical molecular structures.

This is not a random Universe. It is not an accident. The hand of the Creator has shaped it to a purpose.

Life without a purpose is life without living.

Why are you here? Are you here to buy jet skis and motorcycles and then to die? Are you here to build pyramids and then to die? Are you here to sell insurance and then to die? Are you here to work in a nylon factory and then to die?

No. You are here to learn and then move on. You are here to make a difference and then to move on. You are here to discover the meaning of the entire Universe. You are here to recognize the Creator. You are here to make a tremendous difference.

You are not here to live a material life and die. You are here to live a spiritual life and then live. You have a purpose if you are willing to look for it.

We are all hungry for something besides food.

As we reach the last days of Ramadan, something becomes clear that we should have known all along. It is not food alone that we are hungry for. We seek a sense of safety. We seek a sense of security. We seek a sense of comfort. Consider that times that most people eat. Certainly we sometimes eat because our body needs nourishment, but there are many different kinds of eating as well. Comfort food.

There are empty places in our modern souls that cannot be filled by food or drink. They cannot be filled with plasma TVs or big swimming pools. Pimping out your ride will not fill the empty space in your soul.

Only the Creator can fulfill us and for some reason in our increasingly connected and information filled
world, this message seems to have become obscured and lost. The creator fulfills our hunger when we act with loving compassion, empathy, and kindness. The Creator fulfills us when we acknowledge that we do not have all the answers. The Creator fulfills us when we look on all of Creation with wonder, amazement, and gratitude.

Look at the stars and fully realize how small, insignificant, and utterly amazing each living thing is in comparison with the entire Universe. Imagine one small baby in all the Universe. Insignificant and beyond wondrous at the same time.

By taking responsibility for our situation, we make the world change.

It’s easy to blame others for our situation. We can blame our parents for the fact we don’t know how to play the piano. We can blame our government for the fact we don’t have a job. We can blame tobacco companies for the fact we have cancer. It’s easy, but it is dishonest.

You don’t play piano because you have not learned. You don’t have a job because you have not found one. You have cancer because you chose to smoke or live with a smoker or go to smoky places.

A funny thing happens when you start taking responsibility for even the situations where we can claim the most innocence; we change from victims to survivors. There is a key difference between the two mentalities.

A victim is someone who is so weak that they have something done to them against their will. A survivor is someone who despite whatever is done to them, refuses to give in to despair, blame, or weakness. A survivor is strong, a victim is weak. The difference is taking responsibility.

It’s as simple as that. Accept full and complete responsibility for your situation and you change the world completely. The difference is that a victim has fear while a survivor has knowledge. Imagine the difference in describing someone as a Rape Survivor instead of a Rape Victim. The key is that when you take credit for the bad, you also get full credit for the good. Survival takes strength.

Everyone should share a sense of responsibility towards everyone else.

With great power comes great responsibility. You have great power. You have the power to change the lives of everyone you meet in a positive or a negative way. When people say that God created us in the image of God, this could well be what they mean.

Sure, you can say nasty things about people. You can flip people off from your car. You can cut people off. You can interrupt. You can be nasty. You have this choice. You also have a responsibility towards your fellow beings.

There is no reason to deprive yourself or your family of what you need to survive, but can you really enjoy a $500 meal while there are others that are starving? Can you live in a house with twenty extra bedrooms when there are millions upon millions who are homeless? Can you stand idly by while knowing that you can make a difference?

You have free will. Today is a good time to see what you can do in a positive way with it and be grateful to the Creator for giving you the chance to do something good.

Being a part of something higher than your self is exciting.

We are all a part of the totality. Sometimes it is easy to start thinking that we are alone. The only consciousness in the universe. In fact, we are not alone at all. We, and everything else in the universe are connected. It is not just the fact that a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can cause a hurricane in New Orleans, but also a person opening their door, saying a kind word, or doing a good deed.

While you may not be able to see the results of your actions, there are results. You are an important part of the entire cosmos. You might make the decision today that is responsible for bringing joy to every living thing, or destroying every living thing.

Our choices have far reaching consequences. It’s not just time travelers that have the chance to irrevocably change the future. Each of us does. If you were to travel back in time, wouldn’t you be careful not to destroy the future you knew?

That is exactly what you are doing when you choose a cruel word over a kind one, a misdeed over one of merit, or a selfish action over a selfless one. You have more power than you think. Be responsible with it.