Written by Leyla

As the blessed month approached, I began flicking through various projects that would take place during Ramadan, and like every Ramadan, I aimed to replace a bad habit with a good one. Scanning my actions throughout the year I left behind, it struck me that I have neglected the people around me, my community. I wanted to put all my energy into achieving that top grade, specialise in a field I feel most passionate about, but to what extent was I ready to ignore the fact that something was missing?

The community is the pillar of solidarity. The community is where we learn life, where people from all walks come together for one cause, where the one thing we have in common brings us together regardless of our skin colour. It is where ‘I’ becomes ‘We’.

And so the Ramadan Tent Project it was. My journey at the Tent began with Surah Al Asr- a surah which has particular importance to me, a surah that has never failed to strike me as every syllabus is uttered. The founder of Ramadan Tent Project began the volunteer’s induction with these very words;

(1)   By Time

(2)   Indeed, mankind is in loss

(3)   Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.

– Surah Al-Asr, Quran 103

“Discover the Community Spirit” – Here there is no You and I, it is We, simply We. The past week in which I have spent at the Tent has by far proved itself to be the best way in which I have spent Ramadan. Everyday, after the hustle and bustle, the excitement to meet and greet our guests, as the time comes for us to break our fast, I stop and look around.

I see the community, I see everyone on the ground with their hands raised in prayer; the mother, the child, the homeless, the doctor, the young and the old, sitting together, amongst those who believed in the spirit of Ramadan.

I found myself surrounded by those who advised us to patience and righteousness.

Last night, I prayed that God would lift us out of the times we spent carried away in doings that could not replace this feeling that quenched my heart here at the tent. I prayed that everyone will one day Discover the Community Spirit the way we have.