The best ramadhan

Before I knew it, ramadhan was upon me! And this year, alhamdulillah, I was in a Muslim country for this blessed month.

The way I see it, you can be anywhere in the world and have the most amazing ramadhan ever. Last year, I was in Windsor, Ontario and had an outstanding ramadhan, so I wanted this year to be even better.

There is a certain festivity in the air as ramadhan approaches, especially in a Muslim country. Everyone around you will be fasting and they are all busy preparing for the blessed month. Stores have sales and there is an overall mood of excitedness.

I made it a point to map out my ramadhan to get the most out of it. I prepared a dua list, goal list and daily schedule.

The kids were very excited for ramadhan as well and we decorated the house (as usual) to welcome the blessed month. Ibrahim had fasted one day last year and wanted to fast more this year and Asma was also expressing a desire to fast.

As ramadhan begins, it is a special feeling which one only experiences in this holy month. It cannot be put into words, but I am sure you all know what I am talking about.

Fajr here is very early, which meant that I would wake up at 3 am to prepare the sehri food. This took some time to get used to, but alhamdulillah, after a few days it was easier. The best part about the sehri was being able to hear the adhan from the masjid and not having to rely on a timetable to know when to stop eating. The same thing for maghrib adhan and iftaar time.

One of my goals was to eat healthy during this month and for the most part (until the last part of ramadhan) I was able to stick to it. It was just hard when going out, because everything is halaal and at iftaar time, there seemed to be food everywhere!

Iftaar time was also different here compared to Canada. You could really see that ramadhan is a month of feeding. People would continuously feed the workers everywhere. Many of the masajid had tents set up outside with food for iftaar.

We also had the opportunity to cook extra quite often and invite a bunch of workers over for food. It was different from the usual 'iftaar parties' that we would have in Canada. The kids were also enjoying iftaar time, as they would bring fresh dates, samosas, etc. to neighbours. They really felt special and involved. :) And if they were fasting, it was a time of patience and dua and waiting anxiously for that moment of breaking the fast.

One of the best things about this ramadhan was not so much where I was, but what I was doing.

Alhamdulillah, as I have said before, writing down my goals was a big help. I was staying awake after fajr and getting so much done before the kids woke up. SubhanAllah, the barakah in that time is just amazing! The best part was that if I got tired later, I could take a short nap while the kids were at school and wake up refreshed!

This year, I really felt the difference when reading Quran, as our summer of studying arabic helped me to understand many of the words I was reading. Alhamdulillah.

All of this planning and following my goals was leading up to one thing-that last ten nights. It was time to take everything up a notch. And alhamdulillah, for the first year I can remember, I was able to stay up for the last ten nights. All praise and thanks is due to Allah who gave me the opportunity. Since my kids would be in school from 8 am to 12 pm, I could easily stay up at night and rest while they were at school. It was a beautiful feeling of peace and tranquility at night, to be able to read Quran and communicate with Allah through qiyaam and dua. It is something that I am trying to keep up after ramadhan as well. May Allah help us all to stay steadfast and strong for the rest of the year and allow us to see many more ramdhans! Ameen.

As ramadhan ends, a feeling of sadness always overcomes me, because I will miss the month so much. And yet, at the same time, there is the excitement of Eid. Mixed emotions indeed!