This is a guest post by Taher Suratwala.

On my commute home this week, I passed a warning sign that read “503 traffic deaths this year”. That is just for the short stretch of road on my daily trip. I had a traffic accident since last Ramadan myself. Fortunately, it turned out to be very minor. It has had me thinking about this Ramadan differently this year than I ever have before.

In years past, Ramadan for me has been about things I’ve thought to be in my control. I have the illusion that with some discipline I can plan so many things. In Ramadan, I plan to (temporarily) quit drinking coffee, I plan to wake up for suhoor every day, and I plan to do more ibadaat than last Ramadan. My whole life I’ve made plans and things have pretty much always gone according to plan.

My accident made two things clear to me, life is fragile and plans change. In a flash, all my plans almost changed in ways I can’t stop thinking about. This year plans changed for those 503 people and all the people connected to them. I can make all the plans my heart desires, but this Ramadan I’m going focus on His plan for me. This Ramadan I will try to appreciate that I can never understand His plan for me and resolve not to make plans to do things next Ramadan that I can do now.

Taher Suratwala is a husband to his beautiful wife, a father to his two wonderful children, and a son to his wise parents. During the day, he makes use of his math, statistics and economic background as an actuary and occasionally writes on his blog, B Like Water.