Ramadhan is here and it's fasting month again. Today is the ninth day of fasting. Every Muslim look forward to welcoming this month. For my non-Muslim friends, you might not understand what's the fuss or excitement over the month that restricted us from taking food and drinks for at least 12 hours during day time. Even the air that we breathe felt different. I can't explain to you why but the feeling is there.
Care to know more about what Ramadhan is all about? Okay, I'll try to share the little knowledge I have. Ramadhan is the ninth month in Muslim calender. In Ramadhan, it is compulsory for every Muslim to fast. Children were taught to fast as early as 5 years old. We started to prepare them for this by skipping breakfast and lasted until lunch time. During lunch, we will let them have some food and drinks but with a very limited portion. Then, they will continue the fasting until the time to break the fast.
Normally, by the age of seven, many of them will be able to complete the fasting until the iftar time. (Iftar means the breaking of fast)
One may wonder, how could anyone lasted for 12 hours or more without food or drinks, especially the drinks/water. It is hard, initially, especially in this Malaysian heat. The temperature could sometime soar up to 38degree C. This is where the faith comes in. In Him we believe. He wanted us to fast and think about other unfortunate people. Those who were deprived from the luxury of having a few selection of meals every day on the table. He gave us the strength and determination to complete the 30 days fasting to cleanse our heart and soul and be humbled with what we've got. Out of 365 days, we were only required to fast for 30 days.
Our fasting starts before dawn, sometime between 5.30~ 5.45am. (Malaysia Time) We were strongly encouraged to have a pre-breakfast meal (it's called sahur) before the time stated above. As for me, I would usually wake up at about 4.40am and pre-heat some of the dinner's left-over and make some light to the tummy meal for the whole family.
After that meal, it's haram for us to eat or drink without a valid reason. Valid reasons mean if one is sick or for a woman if they are on menstrual flow, they are excused to not fasting. These are the few instances.
Throughout the day, we were urged to recite the verses from the Holy Quran as much as possible, be a frequent mosque-visitor and perform a jemaah prayer. (Jemaah is doing something with many other people). Be generous, donate to the needy if one is capable of doing so.
Not to forget, we should zip our mouth from slandering, from bad-mouthing others and keeping our temper in check. These negative acts actually applied through-out our lives but it was emphasised during Ramadhan month to train and keep us from being malicious towards others.
Towards late afternoon, moms were the most busiest person, preparing Iftar for the whole family. This is when many of those who lived away from home get nostalgic and missing their homes terribly. The preparation for Iftar, the hype of activities around the house, the rush to get ready prior to breaking the fast, all add up to the joyful of fasting. In every Malaysian table, there will definitely be rice on the table.
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| Some greens and black soy beef |
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| Curry crab with pineapple |
Then other dishes to go along with it such as spicy chili chicken, some pan fried fish, some gravy for the rice and a half cooked vegetable.
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| This is the Malaysian jelly, sweet cooling and dissolves in mouth |
For desserts, a typical Malaysian jelly called agar-agar is the easiest to cook and some dates.
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| Dates is high in fibre and easy on empty stomach |
Everything should be done moderately, especially the food. It shouldn't go to the extend of wasting. Islam forbids that. But today in Malaysia, it has gone over the extend where food bazaar is concerned. (specially licensed during Ramadhan) Hundreds of types of food displayed at the make shift stalls that make people go crazy. It was to be a month with moderation in food intake but now it was the other way round. People went berserk at these bazaar and they bought everything that could lure their taste-buds. They forgot that these act will lead to wastage. Waste of money and waste of food that wasn't consumed upon breaking the fast.
Even though Malaysia were known to be a food haven, don't be surprised if you were to visit our country during this month and found that many restaurants or food outlets being closed. It is compulsory for Muslim vendors and restaurateurs to close their outlets (to discourage the Muslims from eating in the open during Ramadhan month) until after 3 p.m. Then they resume their businesses as usual. Don't get alarmed though, one still can enjoy good meals from Chinese and Indian restaurants as they are allowed to open and can operate their business like any normal day. (Chinese and Indian are non Muslim in majority, thus they don't observe the Ramadhan month)
Okay back to Iftar preparation. Once it's time to breaking the fast, someone from the family will read a little prayer thankful to the Creator for giving us the food to live on. And then we eat. The table went quiet for a few seconds, everybody was busy swallowing the most required liquid, the water. It was heaven, pure heaven! Even the taste of mineral water tasted so sweet and delicious.
We were advised to eat and drink a little first, then set ourselves to perform the dusk prayer, but usually most of us would finish our eating first before performing the prayer.
Next, at about 20:45 comes another prayer, the last prayer (out of the five daily prayers) to be performed. It's called 'Isyak prayer. After this prayer, there is a special prayer called Tarawih. This is the highlight of Ramadhan month. It is an extra prayer that were done at night after 'Ishak prayer. It is a long prayer, 20 raka'at. But here in Malaysia, many usually would keep up until eight or twelve raka'at. Depends on the Imam, the prayer could take about 45 minutes or an hour to finish. If the Imam choses to recite the long verses of Quran, then the prayer will take longer to finish but if the Imam read a shorter one, then people can leave home earlier. Imam knows best.
We still could wake up in the middle of the night and do some sunnah prayer and do more Quran reading. Not compulsory though. Sunnah prayers was to cleanse our hearts and souls and seek forgiveness from Him from our previous sins.
There! I hope I did a good job in trying to explain about our Holy month, Ramadhan. Hope you guys enjoy reading the little write up as much as I enjoyed writing for you people to read my blog. Thank you from me, from the bottom of my heart for being my loyal readers. I wish I could get as many readers from my home ground as I did with you guys.
Stay safe, stay healthy and stay good always,
Rose
7th.July '14
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