Reflection in Ramadhan

Abbasid Coin from Hejria Year 149 (766 AD)

Ramadhan Kareem, to all Muslim readers of this blog. This time of year allows us to reflect on the previous year and cleanse ourselves to become a better person for the future. How many Ramadhans have you had?

The coin pictured here is another hammered piece, but from quite an older time period. This is the first series of coins issued by the Abbasid Caliphate that succeeded the Ummayad Caliphate.From an Uncertain time, it was minted in Baghdad preceding the Islamic spread and conquest of the Maghreb. 

This coin has seen almost 1300 different months of Ramadhan. Who used it an when did it cease to have a value of monetary trade? This coin has out lived the Crusades and two world wars, as well as the colonization of the Americas. The tradition carried by this coin is a simple and subtle reminder that the future is shaped by us today, just as today was shaped by those of yesterday.

Correspondent Ibrahim Abu al-Naggar reports