Good morning dear brothers and sisters and I congratulate you all on the advent of the holy month of mercy (Ramadan). We all know that this month comes once a year to cleanse our souls from hatred and our minds from worthless thoughts, and we must take advantage of its beauty and great teachings. It is clearly noticed during this blessed month that many of those fasting are not completely following Allah's teachings or the month's sacred objectives such as abstaining from lies, hatred, backbiting and many other unwanted behaviors. I will give some examples of some deviant behaviors by many of people here during Ramadan.

I will start with some sponsors who place an extra burden on their housemaids, such as cleaning, cooking, washing cars under the blazing heat, caring for bratty kids and most importantly not giving them enough time to sleep after long harsh hours during the day preparing for the breaking of the fast. They are not machines or three-in-one objects - they are human being like you and deserve enough hours to rest like you do. If they are given extra chores, you must help them or bring another helper to assist them so that Allah will have mercy upon you.

The next topic I would like to share with you is the foul temper of some workers at government institutions or those which offer services, such as immigration, traffic department and labor offices. There are cases where clients go there to inquire about or perform a task and find the workers there (male and female) are sleeping or dozing off on their desks, and when asked gently by the client, they roar like a lion COME BACK TOMORROW and will not even look you in the face as if you have murdered their children. Ramadan is a blessed month and it is very short - let us show kindness to others and help those who have come to us in this blazing heat and answer their queries with a smile on our faces, because what you do to others comes back to you for sure.

The Pakistani foreign minister was in Kuwait this week. I welcome Kuwait's guest and would like him to look into his countrymen's ordeal, as Pakistani men cannot bring their spouses or kids to Kuwait. Other countries' nationals enjoy being here with their loved ones, so why it is not OK for our Pakistani brothers to bring their spouses?

Till the next article insha Allah!

By Talal Al-Ghannam