Ramadhan - Creativity

Ramadhan, generally

The time of year is here. Ramadhan. Each and every year this month comes up. It's quite appropriate I feel, that this month never starts or ends at the same time as the previous year. As I've explained to many people today, the first day of Ramadhan, we (Muslims) don't go by the calendar, we go by the moon, and this means (because of lots of lunar logic which I won't go into) that the month of Ramadhan comes forwards about 10 days or so each year. This is the first time in my life that I've felt the warmth of Summer, albeit the very, very end of Summer, whilst fasting. Being who I am, I like this. I like the uniqueness of this loose structure for Ramadhan, it forces you to see things from a different angle, and it impresses (literally) its own importance onto you simply because it applies itself to all times, to all contexts.

Ever since I was young, and still today, I've enjoyed doing familiar things in different contexts, in as many unexpected contexts as possible. When I was seven or eight I remember taking my mattress out of my bedroom, bored of the same old ceiling and window. On the first night I slept in the top floor bedroom, which was cold but exciting, and on the second night I slept in the middle of the coridoor. I enjoyed it all greatly, I even tried sleeping on the kitchen table on the third night, but this was just not comfortable and I only lasted about 13 minutes. The very same applies to my behaviour in more recent years, I listen to different music at strange times or in strange places, I eat a piece of chocolate in the shower, I borrow someone's lighter and fry eggs on someone elses cooker at 3am, I eat my dinner on a rooftop as the soft rain slowly falls. In fact just last month I had breakfast on a piece of scaffolding overlooking my garden. I've come to think of this behaviour as, 'taking a holiday', and that's exactly what I call it. In writing now, I realise that it's something I literally do every day, and I can think of way too many examples, even some from this morning. The point is, to me, this is how life becomes alive. Too much of the same, and it begins to die.

This is why I love the fact that each year, as I fast, and pray, with this special feeling inside me (a feeling which, essentially, does remain the same) my outer world is completely different. Unlike Christmas, I'm not allowed that easy, boring convenience of having an outside event be a bookmark in my life. I have to make the special moments that I'll remember, and they won't be because of the decorations, or the time of year, or the smell of the season, they'll be because something special happened internally. Therefore I say the following sentence with certitude; Islam is the most fluid and flexible of all the world's great religions, and everything contained within it (to one who studies it, or better yet, lives it) is flexible, natural and water-like.

This project, specifically

So, from whence doth this project come? Perhaps for three of four years now, I have had variations on this idea. To do something on every single day of Ramadhan, and then put it together as a creative project. Just for the sake of doing it. It hasn't happened for a bunch of reasons. Once or twice the idea would come (or recur) to me when I was already halfway through the month, and I'd say 'next year!'. The very first concept was to take a photo of each and every sunset, and then display them all together, however my feelings on photography are far from settled enough for me to have gone through with something like that and deem it worthy. A sunset truly is for me alone, they are art from God, for us, like clouds. But what goes on in our brains and our hearts as we watch these things, or the feelings they give us, those cannot be photographed. Another reason it has taken this project so long to happen is that I would often find myself wondering whether or not I would be able to sustain it for a whole month. 'What happens if I don't do something for one day? What happens if I'm busy?' The truth is, this year, more than any other, I will be busy, seriously busy, but I won't let a negative decide what is going to be a positive. The only solution, as I decided this morning upon waking up with the idea, was that it be a project that embraces all kinds of creativity, intellectual, visual, whatever it may be that I get up to on that day. This would ensure that more of the things I do would be included. This is also what this website, and me, are all about- no limits or genres except the ones you choose. I'm making my umbrella as wide as I can, so that it covers all my baby kittens when they pop out. As for 'what if I don't..', and 'what if I'm too busy... ' Well I decided this- If I don't do something, then I don't.

So what?

And thus, with all the liberty and righteousness that two wise-words like 'so what' (followed by a question mark) bestow upon me, I now declare this project ALIVE... In the name of God, the most kind, most merciful, put your hand on the mouse and push your finger down over the link(s) below.