Ramadan in the Cyber Age

If the prophets had used the BlackBerry, would Gabriel be out of work? Perhaps a tweet would have sufficed. No need to descend on that Ramadan night a millennium and a half ago to deliver the Koran’s maiden verse. He would be redundant, like the now-flatfooted postman in the age of email and instant messaging.

Likewise, the parley between God, the Prophet Muhammad and the interjection of Moses haggling over the mandated number of daily prayers – negotiated from 50 down to five – would have been expedited if everyone were on Skype. They could have saved on miracles, air miles and the Buraq’s odometer on the journey to the Seventh Heaven.

These are not blasphemous musings on Islam’s holiest month, but hip philosophizing on the relationship between God, technology and the meaning of Ramadan.

In this age of iPads and Androids, God is as omnipresent in modern devices as “Intel Inside”  stickers are ubiquitous. Like a computer virus, the wisdom of Allah, Jesus, Shiva or Ra streams via the algorithms of Hephaestus, the Greek god of technology.

Across all the world’s touchscreen devices and mobile communicators, God’s presence could appear in an icon projecting a mobile Koran, or a Bible app, or some form of divine-related interpretative software: a platform agnostic interface with God.

Every day we spend more time stroking our keyboards than our loved ones. This extension of our bodies is not born of Mother Nature; rather, it is made in China or Korea, assembled in Finland, Japan or the United States. It is no wonder, then, that we seek to integrate our faith in the midst of this fragmented virtual reality.

Gone are the days of contradiction and incompatibility between religion and technology. Now, some local clerics have started to earn a handsome living from paid text sermons. Or consider the London priest who blessed high-tech gadgets on the venerable altar of London’s 17th-century St Lawrence Jewry church. Parishioners are welcome to raise their cell phones in church, as long as they keep them on vibrate or silent.

The challenge with technology is not the risk of detachment from divinity. If God survived da Vinci, Newton and Einstein, then the Almighty can hold his own with Jobs and Gates.

Rather, the issue is that technology encourages and intensifies our basest inclination: the urge for self-gratification, be it physical or psychological.

Playing with our gadgets, we are stroking ourselves. Text messaging during conversations, we are keeping those in sight out of mind.

Religion, since its conception, has been about meeting a human need for personal connection and  inspiration amid the frivolities of worldly vice.

Nearly every faith has some form of ritual to reconnect followers to their inner humanity, without rejecting the progeny of human invention.

The first significant human discoveries were fire and the wheel. They represent the genesis of technology; indeed, they are often used as symbols of tempting human frailties, and thus are avoided in rituals.

Hindus in Bali, for example, observe the day of Nyepi each year by rejecting various technological tools – represented by fire – that can stimulate the senses, in order to reach the deeper meaning of soul and spirit.

Orthodox Jews refrain from work and from using cars and unnecessary technology on the Sabbath. Other faiths have similar rituals, some even more extreme.

And so it is for Islam and Ramadan. Fasting is the religion’s third pillar after the profession of faith and prayer. Muslims do not reject the use of technology during their fast, but they are required to practice self-control.

The Prophet Muhammad remains the finest example for Muslims to follow. First and foremost, he was adamant that he needed practices such as Ramadan and fasting as much as anyone else.
A verse in Al-Imron clarifies his status, denying any possibility of a modern cult of personality: “Muhammad is naught but a messenger. Messengers have passed away before him.”

For the Prophet, Ramadan was about a community, prostrate before God.

Second, he taught us that Ramadan is about being our best from within, not forcing others to be something they are not – that is, to make ourselves into what we wish others to be, rather than expecting others to change to become like us.

So let others carry out their daily lives according to their own wisdom (or lack of it). Ramadan is about changing our environment from within, not without.

Ramadan encapsulates all the good of Islam: charity, preservation of humanity, family and goodwill. It also marks some of Islam’s most important events, notably the telling of the Koran’s first verse.

That verse revealed to the Prophet Muhammad was “Iqra”, meaning “read”, implying humans have a duty to educate, learn and innovate for their own enlightenment and for the betterment of others.

This suggests embracing technology as a consequence of the greatest gift God gave us: the human mind.

If the apex of a Muslim’s spiritual life is the Haj, then the climax of the numinous year is Ramadan – not the discovery of the latest celebrity lust clip.

Hence, we find mind, body and spirit in the notion of Ramadan. It provides a historical impetus for Muslims to innovate and educate, while sustaining a spiritual balance without letting the distractions of human vices overwhelm us.

For Indonesians, Ramadan has evolved into something more than personal spiritual fulfillment. It has become a foundation of community and family, just as the Prophet implied. Taking our children to visit the graves of elders builds an attachment both to the past and to identity. Visiting relatives and bowing to each other, irrespective of wealth or social status, is a noble human achievement.

When you think about it, how often do we genuinely visit others without the nudge of self-interest – other than during the month of Ramadan?

Do most of us wish every month was Ramadan? Other than the mobile phone operators who make a bundle from the flood of text-messaged greetings during the month, perhaps few do. But certainly we all wish that the spirit of goodness will endure beyond Idul Fitri.

+ Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

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