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A day in Ramadhan

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Forum Name: Groups : Women (Sisters)
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Topic: A day in Ramadhan
Posted By: najamsahar
Subject: A day in Ramadhan
Date Posted: 17 October 2006 at 4:04am

Salamaiekym

I would like to share how I am spending my Ramadhan (sorry if its not too thrilling)

I would greatly like to hear how you are spending your Ramadhan too.

Please post.

Thanks

 

Ramadhan in Saudi Arabia

Saher ends at 5 AM with the Adhaan of the Fajr Salat

Iftaar/Maghrib is at 6:04 PM

We have Indian roots, so our Iftaar menu is Dates, Samosas, a kind of daal and fruit chaat. Two drinks, one is a fig milkshake which I invented :) (very good to avoid constipation) and lemonade or such.

During the day it is a bit of a struggle, My children are small, 20 months and 3 years. We just moved to Jeddah from USA so they are still in the process of adjusting to the heat.

There is not central AC, we have AC's in the windows and we live in an old villa (very beautiful MashaAllah) so the AC is not very effective, temperature inside is usually 90F, really got to do something about this!. I stay in a smaller room which is cooler than the others. Its hard to pray during the day because of the kids so I keep doing whatever dhikr I can in my mind. I do some housework and go online to post my resume, looking for a job and also visit this forum, email etc. I wish to spend more time online but my connection is too slow and minutes add up the bill.

After Asr, its very busy. My husband comes home from work at 4 30 and we go out to shop or get food ready at home. Alhamdulillah, this ramadhan our goal was to provide Iftaar for 50 people each day at the mosque. We have a budget and we have to shop around to get the best deals and variety each day. SubhanAllah. If we plan to serve fruit, we cut it up at home.

After Iftaar, my husband prays Maghrib in the mosque and I at home. When he comes back, we have a cup of tea together. He takes a nap from 7PM untill 7 45. During this time, I wind up things and give the kids their dinners. We leave at 8 for Taraweeh.

We do not go to a local (local in saudi means in the smae street) mosque, we drive for 10 mintues to go this mosque because that mosque is kid freindly. There is a special section (hallway actually) where women with kids pray. women with kids are not allowed inside the main prayer hall for women and it makes a lot of sense. There are old women and women without kids there. I believe that they have to have a peaceful atmosphere where they can focus on prayer. Children are noisy, and in the kids section, they play together etc. No one really is very bothered as all of us are young mothers and used to praying with kids running about.

Taraweeh is short and sweet, starts at 8 30. 8 rakats and its over by 9 30. After this we go out shopping for Eid or get some grocery or eat out.

Alhamdulillah we have done Umrah, (husband will do it tomorrow inshaAllah) and visited Madina.

I stay up till late after the kids have gone to sleep and this is when I get a chance to pray some. Alhamdulillah I am staying up all these last 10 nights of Ramadhan.

This Ramadhan, what I really learnt was that the body is too dependant on food. Not having a job at the moment, I began spending a lot of time in the kitchen. The first week was full of cooking and eating. I gained weight!

Then I stopped eating. I would make small quantities for my husband and I started eating only fruit/juice and now my favourite is Yoghurt and Roti (from the store) with sugar or chaat masala.

My husband caught on too and now he is encouraging me to pray and focus on the kids rather than spend too much time cooking. Alhamdulillah our life has become very easy.

My parents are visiting the US and I told my mother about how I minimised food preparation. She and my brothers family quit eating traditional food and are now eating cereal and toast for Saher.

My mother retired as a Principal of a school after working for 33 years MashaAllah. This was back home in India. We usually had maids or other help but when we did not, she would come home from school and do so much work at home too. She was also involved in many charities and took care of her paralysed mother (my granny) for 5 years. She commented that this is the first ramadhan where she has been able to really pray and focus on higher things, she was recalling so many ramdhans were spent in taking care of the family, making special dishes so that everyone had their fav food to eat.

The secod thing I have learnt is a great thing. I heard an advice about doing Shukr when Sabr does not work. My marriage is not a great one and alhamdulillah I have been able to find peace and have let go of many things. Miracles!! They happen!

I would like everyone to post something about how they spend their ramdhan, just to get some insight.

I leave you in peace

Najamsahar




Replies:
Posted By: UmmTaaha
Date Posted: 17 October 2006 at 8:36pm

Dear Najamsahar,

Thank you so much for sharing this. Masha allah it is so much of an inspiration to others.

I feel a sense of rashq towards you masha allah, that you have the chance to spend your ramadan in Jeddah :) It must surely be so so great than so many other places. May allah reward you immensely, and may you reap all the barakah of that land.

Congratulations on your umrah!

I have hardly much to add from my end, both myself and my husband work, and we are not living in a muslim country, so all the ramadan that we have on a daily basis is in our hearts. Alhamdulillah.

Okay, Sehar time ends around 4:15-ish (well it keeps shifiting by a minute everyday), and maghrib is at 5:00-ish. [guess my rozas are almost the same length as yours  ].

I have a baby who is almost a year, and he gets up every night in the middle of the night. So instead of a proper suhoor, I take a small snack when I have put the baby to sleep once again during midnight. This could be from 1:30, to 3:00 -- his timings vary everday [ yeah, I am struggling with this one, alhamdulillah]

Maghrib is at work, so I carry a small snack (mostly a tuna sandwitch) with dates, fruits or fruit yougurt, and either take a fruit drink from the auto vender or carry a can from home. My husband picks our elder kid from school around 4:30, so he has his iftaar at home, then prays and goes back to work.

I return from work around 6:00pm. [Have already prayed maghrib at workplace]. Pick our baby from daycare, and start the household - washing dishes, preparing dinner, giving dinner to the kids, laundary etc. My husband returns by 9:00 or 9:30 usually. By this time the little one is in bed, and i have either prayed my isha or am going to.

Sometimes I take dinner with the kids, on others I wait for my husband to return. - There is really no specific rule at home :)

This ramadan, I had dropped my daily wirds of the Quran and tried to recite it from the beginning. Alhamdulillah, i did not aim to finish the entire book, since that would be too much injustice to my home and kids. I try my best to recite half a juz each night once the children are settled.

I cannot stay up all nights since I have to work, thus I did salat al tasbih in the odd nights so far. I hope my situation improves as the kids grow, and I can do better. And all tawfiq is from allah alone.

Oh, btw, my prayers during the day are very peaceful, since I do them at workplace, and it is very quiet.

The weather here is very good, we are actually wearing light jackets, and today I even used cotton gloves. So we hardly feel a thing during the fast, alhamdulillah.

We have a small muslim community who get together on iftaar on sundays. We join them there. On weekends, people also invite others home for iftaar. We plan to take our turn this saturday insha allah.

On all other saturdays we had iftaar together. For this I prepared besan ke pakorey (aloo, piyaz aur baigan   ] fruits, a drink, and some sandwitches or burger- Hey, I am indian as well. We also like fruit chaat, and chholey (oh, I do stock chholas for my husband during the weekdays). No samosas - its a big deal for me. But I have a japanese version of it, its called gyoza. We can buy the skin, or the chapati, in which you wrap the samosas - it does not taste exactly same, but can  at least give a nostalgia for home.

I did a couple of islamic courses online and that was great, alhamdulillah. Lots and lots to learn.  Now my aim is to stay tuned in applying all of it in life, insha allah. Please remember me in your duas that I can do it.  I do not have an internet at home, since there is no point, we hardly have time - my only access is at work. My work is such that on certain days I can get hours to myself, while on others there is hardly time to breathe - but I dont mind any of it. The best way I found to utilize my time was to learn some deen through online islamic academy.

You mentioned about shukr. it is alhamdulillah a great thing. I learnt this month that the amount of shukr we owe to Allah is so much that we can never be able to pay off. There are so many visible things for which we can understand to send gratitude, but there are multitudes of more aspects we might not be aware of, or they do not come to mind. So, alhamdulillah! to everything. A shaykh in fact said when we send gratitude, the tawfiq to do so is from allah. Therefore for the act of mere gratitude we need to send gratitudes, since He turned our hearts and allowed us to realize this is due unto Him.

May allah direct our hearts to His slavehood, this ramadan and months to follow thence, ameen.

 



Posted By: rookaiya
Date Posted: 18 October 2006 at 3:16am

ok heres mine

i wake up at 3am for sehri. wake my neice and daughter up too. then i have a bath

at 4am i pray fajr and read a few surahs

5am i wake the kids up ( 4 n 3 yr old). they bath n get ready for school. i then drop them off at my moms, together with my older daughter and neice

6am im back at home then i get ready for work. im at work from 8 until 4pm. i pray Dhur at work, since i have my own office and privacy

get home by 5pm, help mom prepare for iftaar

6pm iftaar. then after iftaar i drop my sis n her kids at their home n i go to my home

7pm, have a bath and listen to islamic radio talk show

8pm pray isha at home and read some more surahs.

i dont go for taraweeh cos the kids sleep early and its not safe for me to go alone with the kids.

over the weekend, my mom n sis come over to my place n they stay the entire weekend. thats when we cook up a storm and have a great family iftaar and sehri




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