The Divine Names and the Practice of Ramadan
A Guide to Working With Mercy, Patience, Life, and Light
Ramadan does not begin by asking us to become different people.
It begins by slowing us down enough to notice how we already live.
When food, drink, and ordinary comforts are set aside during daylight hours, something subtle happens. The body maintains its rhythms, but previously unnoticed habits become apparent. Hunger appears. Irritation appears. Restlessness appears. Moments of unexpected quiet appear as well.
Fasting does not create these states. It makes them visible.
In the contemplative traditions of Islam, Ramadan is understood as a month of remembrance. Rather than trying to control the mind or perfect behavior, one learns to return again to awareness through the Divine Names — sacred qualities that describe how mercy, patience, life, and illumination move through existence itself.
A Divine Name is not a mantra used to escape experience. It is a way of meeting experience more fully. The Name gently reminds the heart of a quality already present within reality and, therefore, already present within us.
This guide offers a way of living Ramadan through several of these Names, allowing the fast itself to become a teacher.
