This year, Ramadan comes to me from Palestine like a message of light that gently touches the heart, knocking softly on the doors of the soul as if it knows the depth of longing hidden between its beats. With the sunset of February 17, 2026, its first night begins here, and the morning of February 18 rises as the first day of fasting in a land woven with stories of patience and prayer. The call to prayer echoes through the streets like a poem of peace written upon the walls of the heart, and the evening becomes filled with a reverence that feels like light pouring into the soul.

As a clinical pharmacist, I have always searched for healing within the details of science, yet in this month I discover that tranquility itself becomes a remedy, and that supplication rises like breaths of hope gently reaching the depths of the heart. Between the aroma of coffee that precedes dawn and the whisper of suhoor that awakens the meaning of new beginnings, I find my spirit arranging its days to the rhythm of serenity.

For three years, I lived Ramadan in Türkiye… and this year in particular, the crescent comes to them a day after us; while we fast on February 18, their first day of fasting begins on the morning of February 19, as if longing grants me the chance to feel the beginning twice. I used to wake for suhoor with my Turkish friends, sharing the warmth of those quiet moments before dawn — our laughter blending with the sound of cups, our conversations mingling with the scent of fresh bread and warm tea. We would wait for the call to prayer with hearts close together, as if time itself slowed down in reverence of that luminous moment. Those memories still live within me like lanterns whose light never fades.

Today, as I experience Ramadan in Palestine, I realize that places may change, but bonds do not; distances cannot extinguish the light of affection — they only make it shine brighter within the heart. My longing for my loved ones in Türkiye is like a crescent I watch for each evening, searching within it for your faces, your voices, and our beautiful memories.

From Palestine, I send you my sincerest congratulations and warmest prayers. May you all have a blessed Ramadan, and may God bring us together again soon at one suhoor table and one shared laugh beneath a single crescent.