Firstly, Eid Mubarak!

Every year before Ramadan starts, I feel a slight hesitancy to enter the month. I wonder if this is the fear of not doing enough to maximize on the blessings of the month or a trick the devil plays to trip me up. Regardless, the month came and went.

A theme that I’ve noticed throughout the years is how quick the blessed 30 days pass. Day by day we may dread the moments and feel that it is taking forever, but we realize how quick it really is once it is over. Allah swears by time that indeed mankind is at a loss, it is interesting that it is by time which we are at a loss.

With the realization that every year goes by faster than the next, I remind myself that time is a very precious commodity. I aspire to use every moment, and not wait around for things to happen.

This Ramadan I managed to go on a Uyghur Awareness tour in the American North East, giving presentations at George Washington, Yale and Harvard University. I say this mainly because when we are out there doing work and maximizing our time with effort, the blessings we receive are grown exponentially in respect to the time lived. This was a five day voyage, that I have contemplated giving up on many times. I am grateful to the people that supported me and made the events happen.

My biggest take away from this Ramadan was the inevitable passing of time. Easter long weekend would’ve passed regardless and if I didn’t put the effort in making the tour happen, I would have missed out on one of the best experiences of my life. To the people I met, thank you for believing in the cause!

The hourglass of life is bolted down to this world, with a finite amount of sand for each one of us slowly passing through the moment. We can consciously utilize time, or ignorantly allow our most valuable asset to slip through our fingers