Ramadan is a time to find peace and solace. For Naureen it has been so much more this year

I lost my father to age-related health issues three weeks before Ramadan, so this year I experienced Ramadan in a whole new way. There was much emotional turmoil within me, as the world I once knew seemed to be falling apart around me.

I welcomed Ramadan as an opportunity to find solace and peace through prayer and worship. It came with a promise of reconnecting my soul with the Divine. I took a leap of faith, knowing that my spiritual efforts would be limited by the human faculties already stretched thin due to the various roles I had to continue fulfilling while fasting and supplicating.

I would still be a mother to a teenager facing their own challenges. I would still be working to earn a living. I would still be fatigued and in need of sleep. I would still be bound by the physical confinements of an ageing body. And I would still be distracted by the wandering mind of a weak human.

Naureen Choudhry and her father Jamil Choudhry.

Despite these known constraints, I yearned to find those fleeting moments in the darkness of the night to shed my tears and feel my grief.

Throughout it all, I was starkly reminded of the contrasts that exist in the world. Where my social media feed unveiled reels of people enjoying lavish Iftar buffets and also showed the suffering of starving children mourning the loss of their loved ones. While the privileged were preoccupied with ensuring they bought their designer outfits for Eid, there were those whose eyes reflected disbelief as their entire livelihoods came crumbling down.

While friends were quick to post about their visit to the sacred Kaaba to seek the Lord’s forgiveness, they were equally quick to showcase the streets lined with food stalls and festivities.

In this consumer-driven and unjust world, Ramadan became a portal – a passage to a silent and otherworldly reality. It was a space that disrupted the commotion, offering brief moments of escape. The quiet stillness of this sacred space became a haven, allowing me to converse with the Divine.

What was said in those quiet whispers, here and there? I could hear only if I was focused and paying attention to the message from beyond: life is not meant to be lived shackled to the pursuit of wealth and power. The soul belongs to the Creator and will find happiness only in closeness and nearness to Him.

It began to make sense – and the raw grief of losing my father transformed into a soothing ache: his soul had returned to its meaningful eternal station.

Naureen Choudhry is a community leader and recipient of the Victorian government’s Meritorious Service Award for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs.