Make Fasting More Meaningful with Special Intention

 

The Ramadhan Holy Month will arrive soon. Have you prepared special intention for Ramadhan of this year?

If you haven’t, don’t worry. Indeed, most people haven’t had intention in worshiping. So, this time I will give a little explanation concerning intention in worshiping. According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia(KBBI), intention is a desire or special request proposed by the members of religious community. In short, intention also can be interpreted as purpose or aim.

The intention of worshiping also can be interpreted as a goal or result that we want to achieve after a long journey. Let’s take “journey” as metaphor. When you do a journey, you have an aim, don’t you? Your aim can be enjoying beautiful scenery or finding new atmosphere. In addition, you won’t neglect the choosing of your journey’s route, will you? This thing applies to worshipping too; If we have intention, we will be more directed and therefore we can worship with full consciousness.

Unfortunately, for some people, worshiping is only a moment to fulfill their religious obligation. There is nothing wrong with this case. However, don’t you feel that you miss something when fasting is only interpreted as bearing hunger and thirst, controlling anger, and breakfasting with family and close relatives? I believe the essence is more than that, isn’t it?

If you want to try, you can start from simple intention like dedicating this fasting for Indonesian security and to increase the tolerance amongst religious members. You can also set personal intention like for the recovery of your family members and to tighten the loose family relationship.

Knowing the purpose and benefit of intention in worshiping, do you want to try to set intention in fasting this year?