Ramadan 2025 Day Three: Unlearning Scarcity

“Satan frightens you with scarcity,
and commands you to commit harmful deeds,
Whereas Allah invites you towards God’s forgiveness and abundance.
​Indeed, Allah is Limitless and All-Knowing,
and gives wisdom to whomever God wills.
​Whoever has received this wisdom has truly been given a boundless gift.”
- Sura Al-Baqara

At what age do we start believing the lie that we have to compete for a limited supply of worth?
Of dignity?
Of love?

What are the earliest messages we receive that tell us we are destined to struggle if we do not take from someone else?
That in order to feel safe, we need to take from another’s sense of safety?
In order for us to feel like we have enough, we need to know someone else has a little less?

At what age do we start believing that our value is measured by our paychecks?
That our right to wholeness and rest is defined by what we produce?
That fulfillment comes from being consumed?

At what age do we forget that “sharing is caring” is not just for children but also adults?
That taking more than what one needs doesn’t avoid scarcity but creates it?
That there is enough to go around AND leave behind to grow for the ones who come after us?

At what age do we forget how to imagine?
At what age do we lose the instinct to incessantly ask “why?”
At what age do we literally buy-in to a way of being that diminishes us from “humans” to “human resources?”

At what age do we dedicate our lives to systems and philosophies that were designed to abuse and kill?

​At what age can we (re)learn something new?