Month of blessings

It is ironic that as the month of Ramazan begins many families across the country s immediately think of price hikes and expenditures. Ramazan, as the holiest month on the Islamic calendar, should go beyond the act of fasting from dawn to dusk; it should also incorporate amongst people the most basic lessons of honesty and fair play. Unfortunately, each year as the month begins it is the accounts of spiralling prices, notably of food items, which dominate the news. As we have now come to expect, the prices of fruits and vegetables have already soared in Lahore, rising by between Rs3 and Rs20 per kilogram despite orders from the chief minister to control the trend. The same pattern has been reported from other major cities. This places a particular strain on families at a time when consumption rises and every family, regardless of income, tries to put the best it can on the table.

Administrative measures can succeed only in part in controlling this. We need also to inculcate the spirit of Ramazan in people, and our mosque imams, religious scholars and others all need to play a part in this. So too does the media with its vast outreach. Ramazan and its essential message of peace and tolerance is also the time to tackle the growing problem of hatred in society. It is a time to guide people back to the essential principles of Islam and its opposition to any kind of violence. Growing ostentatious trends need to be discouraged so that a greater sense of social equality, and with it better equilibrium, can be created. We badly need this. It is unfortunate also that Ramazan usually brings with it that now familiar controversy about sighting the new moon. This year, though, there has been a welcome change and the whole country is expected to have started Ramazan at the same time. These sharp divisions in opinion over the issue of the new moon do need to be addressed properly, so that the month of Ramazan can truly become a time when there is a true sense of national unification. This would add to the blessings the month brings to people everywhere.