The Blog

Ramadan is going well, alhamdulillah. I took a day off today so I can get some rest. I’ve had a busy week and I needed some beauty sleep, so to speak. I did rest some, but not as much as I’d hoped. It’s a gorgeous day too: nice and sunny, neither cold nor hot, simply perfect. The friday khutbah was performed by one of the huffaz and it was very moving indeed. Alhamdulillah! I was invited to an Iftar and dinner tonight at the Masjid and got to meet just about everyone in our little community. Tomorrow night is the big weekly Ramadan potluck at our masjid and everyone should be there. It’s one of the highlights of our Ramadan here in small town Canada. You get to eat 50 different types of food.
There is a bit of a problem with it though: the masjid is too small to accomodate everyone. We are in the process of building another masjid for the past 2 years+ and the aim was get it ready before Ramadan. However due to some unforseen circumstances, the masjid has not been completed yet. The building is up, but it needs a lot of money and work still before we can occupy it. InshaAllah people will donate this Ramadan so hopefully we can finish it before too long. Ameen!
I am so upset right now. I don’t know why its so hard to communicate with some people. I’m not sure if I lack the skill or if they simply won’t try to understand where I’m coming from. In any case, I hope Allah helps me by giving me the ability to understand and be understood and fulfill my duties. I don’t want to go into the details of the issue here (as you can tell) but it has to do with communicating with members of my family. I pray to Allah that He guides us through our hardships whatever and whenever they may be, Ameen.

Decaffinating one’s body is not a simple task. My whole metabolism started to depend on coffee quite a bit, it seems. It’s my addictive personality that’s root cause of this problem. It was the same with cigarettes. It took a lot of effort to quit smoking and its not going to be easy trying to quit coffee. Because I’m fasting, I can’t have my morning coffee, so I am missing my regular caffein that I’ve let myself get accustomed to. Yesterday while driving home from work, I found myself dozing off…I even fell asleep on the wheel for a split second. Luckily there was no traffic and the road was just straight. I slapped myself a couple of times to keep from dozing off again. I’m determined to get myself off of it asap and what better time to do it than Ramadan? Tea is another curse. Its such a subtle addiction that we don’t even give it a second thought. I think I’m not going to give up tea, ’cause I do need something. And I’d rather it be tea, not coffee or cigarettes.

The first day of Ramadan went really well, alhamdulillah. Everyone at work knew that I was fasting and some of my co-workers had some questions about it and about Islam. The common question was “how can one not eat or drink all day long?” I answered their questions as best as I could. I explained the 5 pillars of Islam to them briefly as well.
It was a cold and wet day today. The Tarawih prayers [special prayers during the month of Ramadan in which the whole quraan is recited in congregational prayer] are going well in the masjid. This year we have 3 huffaaz [someone who has memorized the whole quraan] from the UK who are leading the Tarawih prayers instead of the usual two. They read some Tafsir [explanation and interpretation of the quraanic verses] after the prayers tonight.
I decided to only have a bowl of cereal, a banana and a cup of tea for suhur [the meal right before the fasting starts right before dawn - around 5:30 am]. Sadia prepared a special Ramadan style meal for iftar [the meal at the breaking of fast right after sunset - around 5:30 pm].

Ramadan Mubarak Everyone!
رمضان مبارك

Hope everyone’s Ramadan this year is a source of Hidayah (Guidance), Maghfirah (Forgiveness), Rahmah (Mercy), Barakah (Abundance) and Kul Khair (All Goodness), Ameen!
To get information about the month of Ramadan, click here.