Ramadan2014 The season begins on Sunday evening, June 29, and endson Sunday night, July 27, thirty days later. In the Hijri Islamic calendar, it is the 1435th observance of fasting from sun-upto sundown. Like many religious observances, this one haspractical origin. The fasting of theSyrian Christians Lenten season preceded it, but Ramadan was also a response tothe scorching heat and extreme dryness of the year, thus, fasting andinactivity during the day made lots of physiological sense. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam. Shahadahis the foundation, declaring the oneness of God (“la ilaha illa Allah”),and Muhammad is the messenger of a radical lucidity on the unity of life. Five times each day, the ritual of prayer, salat, is observed. Social responsibility is pegged at 2.5percent of one’s savings, the zakat,shared with the poor and needy in one’s community. Sawm isthe fasting and the discipline of self-control during the month ofRamadan. Once in a lifetime, a devoteeundertakes a pilgrimage to Mecca called the Hajj. “Salaammalaikum” and “Malaikumsalaam,” are greetings approximating the salutations of “Peace be with you”and “And also with you.” The Muslimgreeting is heard on the streets of Saipan as muezzins of two mosques on islandcall the faithful to prayers. As aminority group, they are perhaps more dismissive of the Shia/Sunni divide thatis wrecking havoc in areas where the Muslims are a majority, and be moreconciliatory to each other in the manner prescribed in the Quran. In predominantly Muslim Iraq, the Kurds,Shiites and Sunnis have difficulty getting their act together, not just for theethno-nationalism predominant in the region but also the economic powerstruggle on who has access and control of the black gold on the ground. Recent diplomatic effort of John Kerryof the U.S. State Department to promote a unity government in Iraq got a turn downfrom PM Maliki who do not see a greater representation of the Sunni Arabcommunity led previously by deposed Saddam Hussein. The sectarian and authoritarian policies of Malikiare exploited by jihadist militants fomenting for Islamic States in Iraq andthe rest of the Levant. We demonize Islam similarto what progressives and liberals in the U.S. do when we go after the pick-upriding white Kristian rednecks thatare alleged cousins to the Ku Klux Klan. In the devotion to Allah, the ethos of unity is an overriding concern,thus, the harmony of its faithful is a given expectation. The same expectation surrounds the overarchingpower of “love” in the Christian tradition. The assertive defense of Israel towards its ancient borders isunderstandable in light of its history since the Roman Empire took overJerusalem to Germany’s policy and practice of genocide in the Holocaust duringWWII. One cannot say the same of theimperial designs of both Christendom and Islam. Still, it is well to glean the gifts of three traditions from theLevant. I was introduced to the authority of scriptures inProtestant Christianity that led to the priesthood of all believers and the confidencein each one to decide on one’s own on matters of faith and practice. The reality of the-way-life-is I took to bethe all-powerful faith statement of YHWH folks of Jerusalem, leading them todecide ethnically to be the covenant people to lead in “praise” of thatreality. The covenant to be personally chosen became a matterof choice, to play the role of the Christ, unfortunately deformed in thecurrent idolatry of Jesus. Mohammadbrought that back to the complete freedom of the “prophet-hood” but instead ofsticking to the night of power when the Quran,Allah’s self-revelation, wasfirst revealed to the prophet, now celebrated in Ramadan, followers quickly convertedthe event into the idolatry of the book, the authority of those who perceivethemselves to be its keepers, and the exclusiveness of its male-centeredhierarchy. Authority has become an issue in our time. The Zionists understandably established theLand of Israel after the western millennial anti-Semitic history. Ecclesiastical authority was the Church’sconcern since Constantine that got anchored in the primacy of the Bishop ofRome, later supplanted by the paper pope and the integrity of allbelievers. Mohammed had the prospect ofpulling authority out of social structures into the authenticity of freedom butthe politics of the bubbly crude in the desert got his followers into powerstruggles. In our time, the whole issue of “authority” is inquestion. The reality of authenticity,not authority, is the ascendant human spirit. The divesting of “things,” faithfully adhering to Allahas the “no-thing” during Ramadan, is in tune to Christian existentialist and phenomenologists’move from creed to social action, but now, as a thorough-going secularist, Isay, a return to the wisdom of YHWH, the way-life-is, without authority of learned“experts”, but on the authentic witness of individual instinct, intuition,intellect, and intention, we might yet turn the arid air of the desert to theproductive human spirit of the world. "Salaamu`Alaykum." j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!