Imam Khalid Latif is blogging his reflections during the month of Ramadan for the fifth year in a row, featured daily on HuffPost Religion. For a complete record of his previous posts, visit his author page, and to follow along with the rest of his reflections, sign up for an author email alert above, visit his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter.

There is a narration in the Prophetic Tradition of Islam that tells the story of three men who found themselves trapped in a cave. At the mouth of the cave was a boulder that has slipped from it's place and landed in a position blocking the entrance way. They had no tangible means to move it so one came up with the idea of saying a prayer to God by a sincere deed that they had respectively carried out at some time prior for Him.

The first told the story of serving his parents and the third told the story of how he gave an employee of his wealth due to him. The second person prayed in the following way:

"O Lord, I had a cousin whom I loved her more passionately than anyone loves a woman. I tried to seduce her but she would have none of me, till in a season of great hardship due to famine, she approached me (for help) and I gave her one hundred and twenty Dinars on condition that she would sleep with me. She agreed, and when we got together and I was coming closer to her, she pleaded: 'Fear God, and do not approach me in an unlawful way'; whereupon I moved away from her, despite the fact that I desired her most passionately; and I let her keep the money I had given her. O Lord, if I did this thing seeking only your pleasure, then do move the distress in which we find ourselves." At which point the rock moved.

To be clear, in case the point was missed, this woman was approached by this man quite often to have sex with her, which she refused. At a time when she needed support for basic necessities, he agreed to help her only if she would have sex with him. She agreed and he gave her money and then went to be with her in the night but kept himself from doing anything. When this narration is taught, a lot of lessons are taken from it. One thing that is never questioned though is the integrity of the woman who, when stricken by hard times and had no food for herself, made the decision to sell her body in exchange for money. No one says that her choice was wrong or finds any reason to be condescending or obnoxious. She needs to live and is without basic necessities - really what other choice would she have?

Here we're not talking about education. We're not talking about emergency response or lack of medicines. We're talking about just food - something that a lot of people don't have all over the world, including most cities in the United States. I'd also like to talk about what we can do about it.

Our Islamic Center at New York University holds a fundraising campaign every Ramadan for a charity cause. This year we are working again with Islamic Relief USA, a perennial four-star charity org. rated by Charity Navigator, and our hope is to raise funds and awareness for a food pantry located in the Bronx and headed up by The Muslim Women's Institute for Research and Development.

The Bronx ranks the hungriest borough in NYC. The South Bronx is said to have the highest rate of food insecurity in the country. In fact, nearly half of the borough's children lack access to the food they need and 36% of households are food insecure, according to a recent New York City Coalition Against Hunger report. That means roughly 1 in every 3 families do not know where their next meal is coming from.

There is a serious issue with food insecurity in our backyard and it's on the rise. MWIRD's food pantry is doing its part by helping feed 200 families in the Bronx every week and have more than 1,300 families registered as clients. But the pantry wants to do more to meet the growing demand of their service. They need our support now more than ever. The #ICNYU4Bronx campaign hopes to follow suit on the successes of the last five years of fundraising in which we have been able to raise anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000 in humanitarian aid. Our campaign has raised over $4000 so far and will continue through our 5th Annual dinner taking place on July 9th. Whether you are in NYC or not, you can help out with the #ICNYU4Bronx Campaign by sharing and making a contribution at our Team Fundraising Page -- all donations are tax-deductible and for those of you who are Muslim, zakat-eligible as well.

"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." ~ The Prophet Muhammad.

In his commentaries on this narration, Imam Nawawi, a well-known Muslim scholar from the 13th century, explains that the word "brother" is not in reference to your "brother in islam" but rather is in reference to your "brother in humanity." In the spirit of Ramadan, give of what you have and encourage others to give as well without condition on qualification. And if not to this effort, than to some other. And do so with a sense of love and compassion.

I remember the first time I met a woman who was lacking basic necessities in her life. She had a good job and was married, but ended up losing her job and her husband walking out on her around the same time. She depleted the savings she had pretty quickly and was left with very little to make ends meet - other than herself. She described vividly to me her encounters with many different people as she turned to prostitution so that she could simply live. A lack of compassion, understanding and services left her with no other choice. In her own words, "I had to do what I needed to in order to survive."

Hunger is not a choice for some this Ramadan but giving is. The confining realities of poverty can be alleviated if we who have wealth are willing to share it. Don't look to see what you are losing but see what the other will gain. Organize small fundraisers at your own personal iftars and let the recognition of all that we have been given manifest itself in actions for those who don't have as much. But just give and keep on giving. And at the very least keep those who are less fortunate in your thoughts - that itself won't cost us anything.

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Imam Khalid Latif is blogging his reflections during the month of Ramadan for the fifth year in a row, featured daily on HuffPost Religion. For a complete record of his previous posts, visit his author page, and to follow along with the rest of his reflections, sign up for an author email alert above, visit his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter.

Last night, two of our community members at the Islamic Center at New York University spoke to a crowd of 150 or so in our prayer room about their experiences with alcohol and drug addiction prior to our breaking our fast. One was male, one was female.

They opened up to us with a courageous vulnerability about their respective lives, how they roller-coastered through ups and downs for years, and the impact it had on them and others.

They spoke about what it felt like to be drunk and high and everything that came along with it -- the people they socialized with, the places they frequented and the eventual damage it caused.

They described looking for ways out, but not finding too many, having good days and bad ones, and the challenges of finding supportive spaces and services, eventually ending up in Alcoholics Anonymous and shifting in a new direction.

They concluded on self-acceptance and validation, faith and spirituality, and how forgiveness and God played a role in helping them get to where they wanted to be -- sober now for 5 years and 3 years, respectively, and still going strong.

They shared in a way that most in the room had never heard before or been privy to, about occurrences that most had never experienced, and in a way that left every soul in that room inspired, impacted and a little more healed in regards to their own life's challenges.

We found ourselves in their story, and through their story, we became more connected with ourselves. It was one of the best experiences I've personally had in a long time, and one that I wish many more people could have experienced.

Sometimes when we think about creating inclusive spaces, we think about how those dealing with life's challenges and struggles will benefit from space provided to them. We need to start thinking about how we will also benefit from their presence. Not one person who attended last night's program said that the people speaking were lucky to have a space to go to. Rather, the sentiment was that we all were lucky to be able to benefit from them and their stories.

The discussion that followed wasn't about haraam or halal, but about healing and recovery. I watched as heads nodded in agreement in the audience as the two of them described how they struggled with forgiving themselves. Each heart listening found solace and comfort in how tough forgiving yourself can be sometimes. One young woman broke down in tears, saying that she was so grateful to hear their stories -- that she herself feels isolated at times and knows that by societal standards she is somewhat "eccentric", but hearing their words helped her understand that it's ok that she's not perfect. And we all felt a little better at that time about not being perfect and closer to understanding that God's love is perfect because it understands and embraces our imperfections. He is Al-Wadud, the source of Love.

When I see the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, I see people who had flaws and challenges. They struggled in their own right with many of the things that we struggle with today, both inwardly and outwardly. I also see that they had space to navigate their challenges and people to lean on and learn from. They took not only from their own challenges but the challenges of those around them or, when they failed to do so, the Prophet Muhammad made it clear to them that they were missing out.

The Prophet Muhammad had a companion by the name of Abdallah who he was quite close to. There are narrations in our Tradition that finds the two of them laughing together. Abdallah was also known for having a drinking problem and amongst the narrations that discuss this, their is one in which another companions speaks poorly of him and how habitually he drinks. The Prophet Muhammad rebukes that man, saying "Do not curse him, for I swear by God, if you only knew just how very much indeed he loves God and His Messenger." He then added: "Do not help Satan against your brother."

Do I believe that most mosques today would let recovering alcoholics and drug addicts speak to their congregations? Probably not. Do I think there is a problem with that? Yes, definitely. Aside from the fact that we are leaving a lot of people hanging, our failure to engage diversity in our communities, inclusive of diversity in terms of life experience, leaves us potentially stunted in our individual and communal growth. My role is to serve in the way I know best and not be reactive or seek validation from existing apparatus alone. Rather, it is to dig deep into a 1,400-year tradition that expands on the teaching of the Quran by showing me how it's meant to be lived. I know somewhat, and am constantly learning as I am blessed to be in this role, the reality and needs of my community. And I know that many of them have pain in their hearts and last night those who attended were met with a remedy through perspective I could never share with them as a Chaplain or Imam, but only those who were speaking could administer.

Our teachers can be many more than we realize. With humility we have to admit that. Over the years at our center we have learned from the experiences of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and forced marriage. We've grown by listening to the stories of converts to Islam and how hard it was for many to find a place in the Muslim community. We've coordinated forums around race, ethnicity and social class and heard from people that we call "brother" and "sister" what its like to really be a Black person. We've had experts and professionals speak on a variety of issues related to mental health, emotional care, and physical well being. But it is not frequent or regular enough. We've only just started and none of this is happening as often as I would like, but our growth and, in turn, ability to impact, has been distinct as we learn from those that many unfortunately look over. We are better because of each story that we have been blessed to hear. There is no doubt in mind about that.

Please pray for the two who spoke with us last night. May God continue to make them a source of illumination for all those whom they meet. Ameen.

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Imam Khalid Latif is blogging his reflections during the month of Ramadan for the fifth year in a row, featured daily on HuffPost Religion. For a complete record of his previous posts, visit his author page, and to follow along with the rest of his reflections, sign up for an author email alert above, visit his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter.

These past couple of weeks, I've been having some ups and downs with my health. The bad days were not as frequent as the good ones, thank God, but the remnants of the bad days had serious impact on the good ones. I finally went to see my doctor and was told that it sounded like I had a respiratory infection of some kind. Upon further testing, they told me I had a slight case of pneumonia, which was surprisingly not as alarming to me as I thought it would be. I got some prescriptions for two tablet medicines and an inhaler, which my wife, Priya, got filled for me and I took in the evening.

My breathing up until that point had been really terrible -- I was always short of breath and struggling to breath, hard. I'd wake up often in the nights from the heavy congestion in my head and my heart racing. The worst part of it was my nose being blocked.

Around 2:30 AM, I woke up in a sweat, but felt so much better than I had in the last couple of weeks. My lungs didn't wheeze and my head wasn't heavy. The best part was being able to breathe in through my nose after not being able to do so for the last couple of weeks. I sat and smiled for a moment, and then wondered to myself how I'd never realized before what a blessing good health is.

I am not exactly sure what I am hoping to convey in this post. In that moment I took a breath in, I felt more spiritually connected to God than I had ever before. The realization of a blessing is as simple as breathing, and despite all of my strength, how truly fragile a creature I am was made clear to me right then and there. Some of my most immediate thoughts:

• My unwillingness to acknowledge that I am no longer in my teens or 20s, but at 32, I need to be planning better so my 50-year-old self doesn't hate the body that it inherited from me.
• Exercising more self-care in every sphere of my life -- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
• Being appreciative and grateful for the small things I overlook quite often. I know I wrote about this already, but I can't stress how important it is.
• Taking care of myself not just for me but for my family. My daughter, Madina, and wife, Priya, are of the most important blessings in my life and with a son on the way I have to take better care of myself for them. Priya always tells me to exercise, sleep better, eat well and I think I understand better now why.
• Spending time with my parents and letting them know how important they are to me. My parents are almost in their 70s and every day with them is one more day to create new memories to carry and cherish.
• To take more time for reflection. Sitting and thinking about the value of breathing properly has given me so much in terms of reaffirming and realigning my current values while recognizing new ones. If I deliberately took even a couple of hours a week or some time in the day to be introspective, the world around me would be so different because I would come to it renewed and refreshed as a regularity, not just by chance. As it has been said, "Reflection is the lamp of the heart. If it departs, the heart will have no light." (Imam Al-Haddad)
• Understanding my relationship with God and the important role that self-recognition and assessment plays in determining that relationship. I have needs, He does not. That can be daunting to think of if it is isolated from the realities of His Mercy, Love, and Compassion.

My apologies for missing the last few days, and my thanks to all those who have reached out asking if I was okay or if I was planning on writing again soon. It's encouraging to know that there are people who actually read these,, and more importantly that there are those of you who I have never met in my life, but still would take the time to reach out and check-in. Your thoughtfulness is more appreciated than you realize.

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