RAMADAN: SEALED TIME

Coaches presenting people with urgent prescriptions on how to live say, "We have neither the time nor opportunity to practice the trial and error method." Modern life opens living space only for individuals who endure the fast wheel of time and rise above standards. The success we gain today grows old tomorrow; no medallion or echo of applause remains the next day. A problem we solved yesterday changes its contents and reappears before us today.

Now, mixing the experiences of hundreds of thousands of successful people, life coaches present us with strategies for living. The coaches do not just appear before us in films. They also enter the world of average people who want to make it to the top, to be different, and to advance in their own fields while paying a smaller price. And they not only give information on how to organize daily life, but they also whisper in the ears of individuals the secrets of building an original system of beliefs and values.

Thanks to the life coaches, the modern world is striving to maintain and invigorate the difficult art of living again with a method it has constructed. That complex structure called man feels a need in every age for a guide for discovering himself, strengthening his connection with nature and attaining different levels in life.

Anyway doesn't the fact that the first human was sent to this life with a guidebook in his hand indicate this?

The first human being!... At the same time the first prophet!...

Adam advances with a guidebook. Could what we call suhuf, that thirty page script, be anything other than a life guide for Adam, whose needs are fully known by his Creator?

As that first experience in the world, which was bequeathed to Cain and Able, grew everyday like a snowball, the script that illuminated Adam's path shines a bright light on mankind at different times. The truth meets up with man throughout history - sometimes in Noah's ship, sometimes in Moses' rod, and sometimes in David's stand. And one final time that light seals all time on Mt. Hira.

The eternal guidebook -the verses echoing on Mt. Hira- live and enliven in the streets of Mecca. The needle of compasses becomes fixed in Medina; justice, security, mercy and discernment attract people to the circle like a magnet. The spiritual atmosphere changes, minds are convinced, lives take on meaning and temperaments become transformed...

Holding on to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Talha, and Zubayr earn a unique place among all mankind.

They present prescriptions for all times for being different in this world and for reaching the top at a lower cost. Under a shower of thousands of years of experience, they whisper in our ears that "We have neither the time nor opportunity to practice the trial and error method."

A time of change has arrived: a time to reset our compasses, to open our spirits to the world of light, and to seek true life strategies in the words of the Prophet.

May Ramadan be auspicious and blessed for all of us!...