Preparing for Ramadan lives somewhere in the middle
If you look online for Ramadan preparation, you’ll usually find one of two things.
On one side, there’s food. Freezers full of samosas. Batch cooking. Deep-fried snacks planned weeks in advance. Entire conversations about iftar spreads and suhoor ideas.
On the other side, there’s spirituality. Reminders to read more Qur’an. Pray more. Reflect more. Improve yourself. Prepare your heart.
Both sides mean well and both miss something important. Because most of us live in the middle.
The middle is where real life happens
Yes, you need to eat in Ramadan. Yes, breaking the fast together matters. Yes, sitting as a family, making du’a and treating the meal with care is part of the beauty of the month.
Food isn’t a distraction from Ramadan. It’s part of it.
But Ramadan isn’t meant to become a cycle of fasting all day and then eating more than we normally would, just shifted into the night. And it isn’t meant to become a performance of productivity either, where exhaustion is ignored in the name of spiritual ambition.
Most of us are neither deep-frying for a month nor living in a state of constant reflection.
We’re tired. We’re working. We’re feeding families. We’re trying. That’s the middle.
Food with intention, not spectacle
Preparing for Ramadan doesn’t mean pretending food doesn’t matter. It means changing how it matters.
Instead of:
making everything special
preparing far more than needed
turning iftar into the main event
The shift is simpler:
simpler meals
more nourishing food
less excess
more presence
Food becomes supportive, not central. Enough, not impressive. When food is planned with restraint, it stops competing with the purpose of the fast.
Spirituality without burnout
At the same time, spiritual preparation doesn’t have to mean doing more than is realistic. Ramadan isn’t entered through grand plans. It’s entered through intention.
Small, consistent acts often hold more weight than ambitious schedules that collapse after the first week. A little Qur’an read attentively. A du’a made sincerely. A conscious effort to speak less, eat less and rush less. Preparation here is about removing friction, not adding pressure.
Ramadan isn’t meant to be flashy
One of the simple truths about Ramadan is that it isn’t meant to be louder than the rest of the year. It’s meant to be clearer. Clearer hunger. Clearer intention. Clearer awareness of what we depend on and what we overuse.
When preparation focuses only on food, we dull that clarity. When it focuses only on ideals, we risk resentment and exhaustion. The middle holds both nourishment and restraint. Care and simplicity. Joy and limitation.
Preparing differently this year
As Ramadan approaches, it is worth asking a few questions:
What can I simplify?
What can I reduce?
What can I make easier so there is space for what matters?
Preparation doesn’t need to look impressive. It needs to be honest. Ramadan meets us where we are, not where the internet thinks we should be. And for most of us, that’s somewhere in the middle.
