Last few Ramadans:

Ramadan for me was always an inconvenience.

Such a disruption to my daily routine.

I mean, I have things to do, places to go, people to see and all this “don’t eat at daytime” or “do extra-long prayers in the evening” had always taken me away from the important things.

I mean, come on, staying hungry all day – what does that even do for someone? (other than help them lose a few kg?)

But it doesn’t even help you lose a few kg really cos the samosas and pakoras in the evening just pile on everything you lost during the day.

And sleeping straight after eating loads and loads just stores fat onto you so I’d always end up putting weight on rather than losing it.

And then there’s the bad headache on the first two days of Ramadan, if nothing else, this is a reason to dread the arrival of this month…

Seriously – what a waste of time.

What’s the excitement all about?

I mean, there’s people like Rasheed and Asif who get sooo excited about it it’s like someone’s given them the keys to a Lambo and said “go have fun it’s all yours, do what you like with it”

 

 

Before this Ramadan:

Before this Ramadan I thought I’ll find out what all the fuss is about. “get involved” and all that…

I’d learned, in my non-Islamic studies, that in life 10% is what happens to us and 90% is how we react to it. So I thought I’ll apply this to Ramadan and see how I get on.

Now – where do I start, I’d never tried getting “excited” about Ramadan before. A quick phone call to Asif and then one to Rasheed should be a good starting point.

The call was predictable, a lot of “inshallah it should be really good” and “Mashallah this blessed month will greet us once again” as if it’s going to come through the door and give them a big hug and say “HI BROTHERS…. I’M BACK….. AND I’VE GOT YOU SOME PREZZIES…..” I mean come on – why am I even entertaining this… Then I had to remind myself 90% is your attitude towards it so keep listening, play along with it…

“Yes, inshallah I’ll start preparing for it this weekend” they said to me. I was just thinking - Huh? What you going on about? There’s still like a month left..??!! Dude, you need to get a life..??!! Then another reminder to myself. He enjoys it you don’t, so he’s clearly doing something that you’re not so learn it from him. What is it that he does that makes him enjoy it and what is that you DON’T do that makes you hate this month so much? Find out and have that attitude adjustment. So I passively listened to him waffle on for another half hour then thankfully he had to go and pray Maghrib so let me go.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what he said. I mean I felt ready just listening to him. It was like I was ready. When I passively listened rather than switch off like I normally do, he just made it sound so simple. Could it really be that simple? “Don’t give yourself time to get bored. Fill your time with reading Quran and leaning about Islamic things and it’ll be over before you know it and then you might even miss it” he’d said to me. I guess if you have a love or curiosity of learning those sorts of things then the time WOULD fly past.

I know what, I’ll try it…

I’ll start this weekend too. Just like them two.

So over the next few weeks until Ramadan started I got the old prayer mat out, dusted it off and started reading namaz (not everyone, but I tried to read most)

I also started getting my eating in order. In the first week I stopped eating between meals, so by the end of that week I was only having my three daily meals. The next week was about having three meals, but smaller portions. The week after that was about missing breakfast but having the other two meals. Then I was missing lunch, but having a tiny breakfast. There was about 10 days to go and I got hold of some Islamic books to read through Ramadan. OMG – there’s still 10 days to go and I’m excited about it already. I don’t know what it was before, maybe the lack of preparation, maybe something else – I really don’t know. But this time, because of the preparation I was actually ready and looking forward to it.

I’d even got in touch with two charities and I was going to dedicate some time in Ramadan towards good causes. I actually couldn’t wait. Have I become Abid and Rasheed? No – Never….!!!! But seriously, I could see now what all the excitement was about.

 

 

DURING:-

Daily routine:

The routine of Ramadan was actually a refreshingly welcome change to usual grind that my life had become. I’d end my fast with a date or two eat a bit of fruit and drink water, pray Maghrib, eat my full meal (without many fired things), play with the kids, pray Isha and Taraweh, stay awake until Sehri, have my Weetabix, dates, yogurt and water. Then pray Fajr and go sleep for a few hours before getting up for work. Come back from work, pray again and go sleep for another few hours, wake up pray Asr and then read the Islamic books I’d invested in and sharing some of the information with people via the internet.

Overall to keep busy and focused:

There were some night when I went to a call centre in Manchester to help take calls from people wanting to make donations to the live appeals on Islam Channel. That was an interesting experience that I’ll write up about soon.

I also spent some time keeping my mind occupied with distributing a few Revival magazines, that took a few days.

 

Towards the end of Ramadan, I felt a little empty, like something was missing. I didn’t know what it was. I was ticking all the boxes, so what could it be?

Maybe I was missing the annual headache cos I didn’t get it this year. Oh yeah, I used to get a headache, what happened to it this year? Hmm… maybe the preparation worked?

Well – there was only one way to find out for sure. Time to pick up the phone to Rasheed and Asif again.

“Brother, I have that same feeling. I get it every year towards the end of Ramadan. It’s because I love this month so much and when I know it’s about to leave, I get a little down”

There he was again, referring to it as a person, is he really mad? Or is he a really wise man? Could it be the weakening grip of Brother Ramadan’s hug that is causing these feelings inside me. Am I going mad too? The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that that’s what it must be. I mean, I AM really enjoying this and in less than a week it will all be over…

 

Eid:

It was over. Ramadan had come and gone and I was so busy I didn’t even have a chance to think “oh no – not again” or “ah man…. When’s this gonna finish”

Eid was good, had fun with the family. Feasted, but not irresponsibly. Had a few Eid parties (halah ones), played football in the park. Really enjoyed myself. Was supposed to go to Scotland, but that plan got postponed.

 

After:

Now what? What to do? Hmmm… 11 months to go until the next one…

For a while I’d had a few health issues (I’ll go into this at another time) but I actually felt a lot healthier since this “I’m going to take Ramadan as seriously as Asif and Rasheed this year” attitude adjustment.

Maybe if these health improvements continue, I’ll even run with the editor in the 10k next year J

Well, one of the things I learned in my “learn something new every day in Ramadan” sessions was that it’s Sunnah to fast 6 days in Shawaal (the month that follows Ramadan)

In the spirit of being a changed man, I thought I’ll take part in that too. I’ve done two days so far. Wednesday and Thursday of this week. I took a day off today as I’ll be traveling 200 miles South straight after work for a weekend away. So I’ll finish the other 4 days when I return.

I don’t know if / when this motivation will finish. I’m just going to take it a day at a time. Someone shared an experience about keeping motivated - so rather than thinking “I’ll start tomorrow” I too will be thinking “I’ll only do it today” and then the next day I’ll think the same thing. Since we only live a day at a time, I think that’s not a bad way to go about it.