There is an exceptional influence that the month of Ramadan exerts every year on Arab writers, with which they always weave a strong spiritual relationship based on creativity and innovation.

Because the body, in moments of fragmentation, is full of energy and serenity, which makes it more liberated from the monotonous daily life’s materialisms and is always ready for creativity and contemplation.

While some Arab writers consider Ramadan to be a month of rest, reading and travel for them in the heritage texts of Islamic thought in the various historical eras, some experiences on the other hand are ready for serious writing, by writing books on thought, history, literature and art, by virtue of What this month gives him of the rituals of contemplation, tranquility and devotion, which makes one weave with himself a spiritual connection, distancing himself from the screeching of public spaces and immersing himself in his soul, searching for his lost self, freed from the grip of daily life in its monotony.

A month rotates with the moon

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, the Syrian poet Mays Al-Reem Qarful says that every year, "Ramadan revolves in its own way to turn into a new chapter above the seasons. The shaving of those who are fasting, and sometimes it becomes severe, holding hard the sun, which transmits its light and thirst, so that the dream becomes simple in the form of a glass of water.”

In her view, "Ramadan and my sense of it change every year, but it is like a small child who grew up with us, with its scents, memories, and the holding of social bonds that were the sweetest in Syria, whether we chose to belong or not. We cannot deny the aesthetics of some traditions, because of their solidity and their passing. Unconsciously, the values ​​of the group, and I think that the month of Ramadan constitutes one of those paths.”

Writing rituals do not change

The owner of “When the War Helped Us Express” adds that despite “it has turned since the end of the last century into a month of consumption for drama and food, and despite its recent transformation into a loophole that illustrates the great economic vulnerability of the crisis in Syria, but it is dizzy, and its memory is connected to its future, while we are going through our crises, so let us preserve At least on that memory, between the first streak of light, to the very end."

"When We Helped the War Cross" is the first production of the Syrian poet Mays Al-Reem (Al-Jazeera)

On this basis, the writing ritual does not change for her, because it is “an opportunity to reflect and pause, and an opportunity to define a period of time with a ritual, a name and a physical training. I hope that the culture of dealing with the body will continue for the period after iftar, for periods outside Ramadan, I mean the month of Ramadan and the idea of ​​fasting is a pattern A life that may have to be dealt with more spiritually than it is currently, until it becomes like a date grain that you remember the purity of its taste inside your soul, so you feel faith, from somewhere hidden.”

Ramadan socially

As for the novelist Mustafa Laghtiri, who is used to spending the month of Ramadan in Morocco, he is keen to consider that this month “occupies a special importance in the lives of Muslims in general, in addition to the spiritual nature that dominates the lives of people of different social affiliations during Ramadan, which makes them tend to revive Religious practices that are related to this month in particular, it also breaks the monotony of the temporal flow, by changing vital dates in their lives, and as a result they are turned upside down, their habits and dates change, and the temporal rhythm has a different impact, affecting people psychologically and biologically.

In response to a question about the effect that Ramadan has on your body as a writer, Ghatiri believes that “it is very natural for this month to affect creators as well, as they are an integral part of the components of society. The course of their diaries, especially if we know that most writers are tempted by cafes to practice reading and writing, but they close their doors during the day in the month of Ramadan, to compensate for the nights, during which they often become crowded with pioneers, and thus do not provide creators with an opportunity to read or write.

Read the books of the ancient Arab heritage

This is how the book is in the eyes of the owner of "The Saint Aisha", who, in turn, are obliged to "invent different rituals, perhaps it will help them in inking some words, or they may rest and laziness while waiting to return to normal life on its known dates."

All this is in contrast to the magic that traditional books practice on the taste of my language during the month of Ramadan, he says, “Personally, in this month, I like reading traditional books. I often re-read certain books, including “Enjoyment and Friendship” by Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, or I immerse myself in reading the book Lisan al-Arab Ibn Manzur, enjoying the linguistic generation of words, their derivations and their multiple meanings, and the texts that refer to them as evidence. This takes me a lot and time passes quickly, as if it were a stream of water running through a valley carved with sides that helps its flow.

The novel "The Saint Aisha" employs myth to express the contradiction in society (Al-Jazeera)

Close to reading, far from writing

But the love of Ghattiri does not stop there, as he prefers to mix the books of the Arab literary heritage with the poetic anthologies, which he keeps “in a special place, bringing together the eyes of ancient and modern Arabic poetry. I read them eagerly, and I repeat them with incomparable pleasure.”

As for the question of writing, he believes that “I very rarely do it, because it refrains from me, demanding its usual rituals, which do not seek an alternative. Therefore, I write only some light articles, which do not require much focus, or to record some of the pens that I return to. Later when I have the right circumstances, but I generally can't focus on writing a long narrative work."

Ghatiri concludes his speech to Al Jazeera Net, saying, "I also take advantage of the opportunity to fast to lose some weight, as you engage in walking for a long distance, it may take hours, the benefit of which is certain, it brings undoubted benefits to the soul and body. Then, an opportunity to watch some films that I was postponing seeing because of narrowness." Time and preoccupation with reading and books and commitment to work times that consume human time and life without realizing it.