The Human Cohesion Project — 9 March 2025
Rukmini Iyer
Leadership Facilitator & Coach | Peacebuilder | Board Member | Vital Voices Fellow | Rotary Peace Fellow | Ashoka Changemakers Awardee
Ramadan is often understood as a time of restraint of food, of drink, of indulgence. But there is another form of restraint that is equally profound: the restraint of speech.
In a world filled with noise, silence has become uncomfortable. We are trained and educated to always respond, always comment, always have an opinion. Yet, silence is not emptiness. It is a space where understanding can deepen, where words can be chosen with care, where true dialogue can emerge.
The Quran (50:18) reminds:
“Not a word does a person utter except that there is an observer ready to record it.”
And the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) advised:
“Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should speak good or remain silent.”
In many spiritual traditions, silence is not an absence but a presence. In Christianity, monks take vows of silence as a way to cultivate inner stillness. In Buddhism, deep listening is considered an essential practice for wisdom and compassion. In Sufi thought, silence (samt) is a way to hear what cannot be heard through speech alone.
Yet, silence is not only about what is withheld. It is also about how we listen. Today’s world is marked by outrage cycles, performative speech, and the race to be heard. True listening is rare.
To listen deeply is to hold space for what is unsaid. It is to hear not just the words, but the silences between them. It is to resist the urge to fill every gap with reaction. It is to be present with another without immediately shaping their words into our own narratives.
The poet Rumi once wrote:
“Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love.”
Perhaps this is one of the invitations of Ramadan — not just to fast from food, but to fast from unnecessary speech, from the compulsion to react, from the need to be the loudest voice in the room.
So today, perhaps the question is not what will you say, but how will you listen?
Ramadan Kareem. May this be a month of deep listening, within and beyond words.
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