The Human Cohesion Project — 5 March 2025

Today marks the beginning of Lent for Christians, a time of fasting, prayer, and reflection that will continue until Easter. Meanwhile, Muslims are in the early days of Ramadan, and the Baha’i community is observing its 19-day fast. Three traditions, three different calendars, yet one shared practice: restraint.

Fasting, across cultures and faiths, has always been more than an act of abstinence. It is a deliberate stepping back from the excesses of daily life, a conscious recalibration of the self. In Islam, fasting is a means to attain taqwa — a heightened awareness of the Divine. In Christianity, Lent is a journey of purification, mirroring the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. In the Baha’i tradition, fasting is described as a time for spiritual reinvigoration, a reminder of the soul’s dependence on something greater than itself.

Yet beyond religious doctrine, what does it mean when entire communities, across geographies and histories, choose to fast at the same time?

The world we live in is fractured by conflict, inequality, and the noise of ideological divisions. And yet, in this moment, millions of people are engaging in the same act: choosing restraint. Choosing to sit with hunger rather than immediately satisfying it. Choosing contemplation over distraction. The body does not know whether it fasts for Ramadan, Lent, or the Baha’i Fast — it only knows the rhythm of emptiness and fullness, of pause and renewal.

Fasting reminds us that we are more alike than we often acknowledge. It dissolves, even briefly, the illusion of separation. A Christian abstaining from meat today, a Muslim breaking fast at sunset, and a Baha’i greeting the dawn with gratitude, all are participating in a ritual that transcends religious boundaries.

And perhaps this is the deeper invitation of fasting: to see beyond difference, to recognise the sacred in another’s practice, and to remember that beneath the layers of belief and tradition, we are bound by the same longing — the longing to return to something essential.

As you move through this day, whatever your tradition, whatever your belief, perhaps the question is this: How does your hunger connect you to the hunger of another?

Ramadan Mubarak. Lent Blessings. May this be a season of shared seeking.

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