Sabr – Ruetir

Whaddup then dear reader? I hope you’re well. We’re officially in spring, so that fact alone is reason enough to see the good in the moment. We are currently also in the month in which all Muslims fast for Ramadan. And although as a professor at Smibanese University I delve into all religions in my search for wisdom, during last year’s Ramadan I decided to convert to Islam. Up to that point I had already participated three times, and all the knowledge I had gained up to that point meant that it was a Smibological decision for me to make, so I did it.

This year Ramadan started off pretty rough for me. To be honest, there was no reason for this besides the fact that I simply didn’t want to be good, you know? Just plain. Anyway, I am now doing better every day, because in the first week and a half I participated more perfunctorily than deliberately. There really is a big difference. Outsiders often think that fasting is all about fasting, and that it’s all about the food and drink you deprive yourself of during the day. That’s how I experienced it in the first week. But I’ll be honest, I mainly experience that as the surface of Ramadan. What matters most to me, and I think every practicing Muslim, is purposefully adhering to the regulations, and that is mainly about disciplining the purity of your consciousness thanks to Ramadan. In that respect, fasting is more of a tool than a goal.

When you consciously observe Ramadan, you are in a kind of ultra-consciousness, ultra-aware of what you think, what you think about, how you speak, live, and what you spend your time on. The turning point for me after a week and a half was something very simple, a moment when I advised someone else. It’s nice how our advice to someone else often helps ourselves as well. I was telling another professor from the Smibanese university that he had to be patient about certain matters that we are dealing with at the university. When he asked me how to be patient, I said you just have to do that, period. The evening after this conversation, I sent him some screenshots of articles I looked up about patience, and when I shared them via Instagram, an acquaintance of mine responded with “Sabr”. Apparently this is part of the bifurcation of the faith besides “Shukr”. One (Sabr) is about patient perseverance in the profession, while the other (Shukr) is about sending your gratitude to Allah and thus also faith.

But also apart from Islam, if you think about patience it is something very enriching. You shouldn’t see that shit as a choice, like “am I going to be patient?” Patience is something you have to impose on yourself, as an obligation. See impatience as a sin, as something you do to yourself. A funny thing about it is also that not having patience is not beneficial in any way, because it does not change the situation for which you have to be patient at all. In fact, it only makes it more difficult. The impatient among us ensnare their rest. Patience enriches your soul. It brings resignation, because you resign yourself to the belief that what you desire will happen. That’s why they say; Patience is a virtue. Patience clears your mind of all cravings and strengthens your manifesting power. So be patient, otherwise it will bring you down. Pure!

Prof. Suitkill is the founder of Smib Worldwide, a creative organization from the Bijlmer. And from the Smibanese University, for which he published the Smibanese Dictionary 2.0 (nominated for the Language Book Prize in 2020) and recently Smibology. Each one, teach one.

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