TAKE a break from life. The temporal one, I mean. Eleven months in a year is enough to pander to the demands dictated by self and others around. Thirty days of spirituality then can click with the soul, whether you fast or not, that’s your business.

In a country where pursuit of happiness means money and pleasure, the spiritual side of life often gets short shrift. Endowed with constitutional guarantees and wide reaching freedoms – of speech, media, religion and association -- Americans like to exercise their choices as they wish. Last week, billionaire George Soros, heading the non-profit organisation ‘MoveOn.Org’ took a full-page advertisement in the New York Times using a clever wordplay on the name ‘Petraeus’. The ad read ‘General Petraeus or General Betray Us?’ It accused the four-star general in command of Iraq with ‘cooking the books for the White House’. Ambassador Ryan Crocker who was American ambassador in Islamabad before coming to Iraq together with Petraeus testified at a nationally televised hearing punctuated by numerous protests by the anti-war demonstrators in the audience.

This is what I mean by freedom of speech. Dare one try such acts of bravura back in Islamabad, the ISI would grab you and soon you’d make it to the ‘missing persons’ list. George Soros has so much money that he wants an end to the killing fields his country keeps sprouting around the world. Billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, on the other hand, want to rid the world of poverty and pestilence and have donated almost all their earnings to this fulsome cause.

I talk about benevolence because Muslims believe in sharing their good fortune and whatever they can afford with those in need during the holy month of Ramazan. Temporal life may give pleasures unlimited but the pleasure of giving is like taking out insurance for life hereafter.

One of the Holy Prophet’s (Pbuh) truest and most revered companions, Abu Zar Ghaffari (ra), said that there are three claimants to one’s property: the world; the heirs; and the person himself/herself. The things you consume during your lifetime go to the (material) world; the stuff that remains after your death goes to your heirs; and that which you give away in charity in your lifetime is yours in the hereafter (that alone will help you on the Day of Judgment).

In my nine years of life in America, I have seen the Islamic Centre in my neighbourhood spring to life during Ramazan. Millionaires down to petty shopkeepers stand shoulder-to-shoulder offering their Juma prayers.

“I think fasting is a wonderful experience,” observes Saeed Butt, a senior executive in a Fortune 500 company. “Allah says in His beautiful Arabic prose: fasting is (exclusively) for Me.” Apart from the immense religious benefits of Ramazan, “I think it's an exercise in economy and management of time (which by the way is the meter by which we consume our lives), and it's about sharing too.”

Butt is one of those intellectuals who don’t like to sound self-righteous or judgmental and says preaching aimlessly is something “I’ve never wanted to do.” A graduate of an Ivy League school, Butt fully availed the chance to network with America’s elite (presidents and down), but a recent self-awakening has lifted him to a higher plane that has put him in touch with his self.

He quotes from the Quran because “life intrigues me,” he says. “Being alive intrigues me even more!” Before, he would do what was required of a Muslim: read the Holy Quran because it’s ‘good’ for you, or pray, because it’s an ‘obligation’. But lately “I've come to the conclusion that in Islam there are answers to my searches about life.” He quotes the great Sufi Bulleh Shah:

Enjoy whatever comes to you in life/but you must do the hard labour that life demands of you/and if you must seek guidance from a mentor/why not Allah the Biggest of them all.

“We waste time … we waste our lives on things that don’t matter in the long run. If we learn to economise time we can do much more with our lives,” says the economist.

Butt gives the example of Japan: despite their level of affluence, which is way above the Europeans and the Americans, they are not wasteful. “Fasting can help people do more with their time. Starting from early dawn (which is the most productive part of the day), one does not have to spare time for food, drink and other activities one would like to refrain from while fasting.”

The Holy Prophet (Pbuh) started to deliver his message at the age of 40 (most people today are quite spent by that age) says Butt. “In 23 years, our Holy Prophet (Pbuh) gave mankind the most comprehensive system of civilisation to live by. He turned a herd of pagans into the most civilised nation in the world. He fought many battles, established a state, taught people, reformed society, led a wholesome family life, handed out justice, travelled, worshipped (stayed up for the most part of the night praying on a regular basis).

“How did he manage all that?” With the help of faith and divine guidance.

Butt complains of humans wasting food. Well, he can say that again! In America the size of the helpings is phenomenal and therefore impossible to finish.

By fasting one realises the hunger of those who can only afford one meal a day. And there are millions like that. “It’s like our politicians and government leaders who have never taken a ride in the stuffy urban buses or done any manual labour.”

If you allow competitive metabolism to take a back seat, open up the heart to the Higher Being and during these weeks go all out to stay the course will you not come out a winner?