Ramadan 2009

[doodlebugg 10]

As you all probably know I am new this will be my first year, and am very 'wet behind the ears', so can you tell me what is Ramadan food? I think I got this part, you eat before the sunrise and first prayer, then break your fast at sundown. (layman terms, sorry) But do I understand there is a certain food I should break my fast with? And what is Eid?

Masha Allah, does that mean you are a muslimah now?

There is no special food to break your fast with but it's sunnah to break it with dates and some milk then you can eat whatever you want.

Eid is right after ramadan is done it lasts 3 days it's the time where you celebrate breaking your fast after a long time of fasting.

I have been 'looking into' converting/reverting for some time now. I have now decided to convert, I am actually going to meet with a woman tomorrow at a local Mosque, I am soooo excited! I have considered myself Muslim in my heart for a while, but for some reason trying to learn everything first. But thanks to Rahma's blog I read something that encouraged me to 'just do it'. LOL

Thanks for the advise.

Oh that's so wonderful! I reverted right before Ramadan as well just about three years ago.

[Bajih 4]

Wonderful news! Keep us posted on your progress!

In terms of Ramadan food- I find that it is so hard for me to wake up earlier than my normal work get-up time to eat- so I am always racing to stuff something down! I hope to plan better this year and have sahoor ready to go insha'Allah. As for iftar, I always have a bottle of Coke on hand during Ramadan- I never buy it but during Ramadan... I also get a box of those big Mejool dates but I only eat 1 or 2 a day and always have leftovers.. My daughter and I usually prepare a little iftar snack consisting of whatever we have around the house- we put it on a special plate.

I converted in 1996 back when Ramadan was in early March I believe. The days are getting longer and it is getting harder. I work in a very old building with no air conditioning and am fully hijabed up.. so it gets very hot. I remember last year I was just so wiped out after coming home that I just came home, threw off my clothes and laid on the bed and slept until iftar. Sooo tired! Any ideas as to how to get through these loooonnnggg days?

[Melly 2 0]

Wonderful news! Keep us posted on your progress!

In terms of Ramadan food- I find that it is so hard for me to wake up earlier than my normal work get-up time to eat- so I am always racing to stuff something down! I hope to plan better this year and have sahoor ready to go insha'Allah. As for iftar, I always have a bottle of Coke on hand during Ramadan- I never buy it but during Ramadan... I also get a box of those big Mejool dates but I only eat 1 or 2 a day and always have leftovers.. My daughter and I usually prepare a little iftar snack consisting of whatever we have around the house- we put it on a special plate.

I converted in 1996 back when Ramadan was in early March I believe. The days are getting longer and it is getting harder. I work in a very old building with no air conditioning and am fully hijabed up.. so it gets very hot. I remember last year I was just so wiped out after coming home that I just came home, threw off my clothes and laid on the bed and slept until iftar. Sooo tired! Any ideas as to how to get through these loooonnnggg days?

I am more than a little concerned myself about getting through the long hot days. Insha'Allah hubby and I will have an apartment in a week or two, so at least I will finally have air conditioning. It's been so hot without any a/c here in Egypt.

But, I think they are moving the clocks back early here to coincide with the start of Ramadan, so I'm guesstimating that iftar will be around 6. I hope not much later than that. And we are usually up til sometime between 2 and 4 a.m. anyways, so getting up/staying up for suhoor should be no problem.

But it's still a long day of fasting and we haven't even hit the longest days yet. I think it's another 10 years or something til the days start getting shorter.

Um... after that bit of uplifting blab, lol, Bajih can you put a fan in your office? Maybe a small size one for your desk? Hopefully it would help at least a little bit. Maybe taking a cool shower when you get home from work will pep you up? Or.... what about mid-day, using the ladies restroom and splashing your face with some cold water? Or several times a day if that will help.

I have to say, I am really disappointed with the way people eat here during Ramadan. They fast all day and then gorge themselves all night long.

I am hoping since hubby and I will have our own place and not be at his folks house, that I can change that this year, at least for him. Can't control what the rest of his family eats though.

I am just so sick of the food at this house. Everything is fried or cooked in too much oil/grease. I love my mother in law, but she's killing her family with food. And it's worse during Ramadan. Because then there are too many fried sweets on top of all the regular fried food. *sigh*

[tnh9479 1]

We usually buy our dates directly from this farm in California. They taste soooooooooo much better than what you can get other places.

I always make Harira for DH. Yum!

Does anyone know of a good young children's book on Ramadan (in English) that I could read to the babies?

[~Jackie~ 30]

Does anyone else get like...giddy a month before Ramadan? I am planning and ..well, excited for it to come.

This is my 8th year of fasting and I wasn't too excited for the others, not like this year. Must be my perspective, I was just wondering if any of you get this way.

Jackie

[Cheryl & Medo 3]

I NEVER HAVE DONE THE FASTING...BUT I WAS THINKING ABOUT DOING IT THIS YEAR WITH MEDO. HE THINKS THAT IS FUNNY... AND REMINED ME THAT I CANT HAVE MY COFFEE AND CIG'S. NOW I WILL HAVE TO RETHINK THIS...

[Bajih 4]

I think this year I will just dampen all of my clothes on an hourly basis- to keep cool.

Fans in my classroom circulate the hot air and the district will not pay for air conditioning

to be placed in our school. Interesting how the other schools have it and our own office

has it as well. Hmm.

I hope to have some iftaar parties at my house- and hope to get to some as well! I always

look forward to that!

[UmmSqueakster 54]

I'm always excited for Ramadan Can you tell, lol?

I made harira this weekend, but I wasn't too enamoured with it. I'm sure that it's my fault - I used ground lamb, since I didn't have any lamb chunks, and I think I put too many noodles in. I'll have to try it again in a few week, after I visit the halal store. We're actually thinking of hosting iftars this year, so I'm trying to find impressive foods to serve

I have a few ramadan muzlim lolcats in the works. If anyone has any kitty pics that look like a very hungry cat, or a praying cat, or something islam related, send em my way.

Also, I've finally convinced AbuS that he should do some Egyptian traditions during Ramadan. He has requested that I save all the paper scraps we normally recycle for decorations. Now I'm worried

Edited July 13, 2009 by UmmSqueakster

[UmmSqueakster 54]

Ok, so when does Ramadan start? Here's a repost about the moon fighting issue:

For those who have never had the joy of observing Ramadan, or being married to someone who is obvserving Ramadan in the United States, let me introduce you to one of the many joys, er perpetual debates the american muslim community has.

When does Ramadan begin? And for that matter, when does Ramadan end? When is eid?

For those who are going

, allow me to explain. The Islamic calendar is theoretically 100% naturally lunar. Our months are based on the phases of the moon, and a new month starts the new month. Sounds simple right? Ah, no.

The controversy arises when a community in a non muslim country such as ourselves (and in Canada, Britain, etc) can't decide exactly who sights the moon first.

Every year, we are faced with several options:

1. Follow an astronomical calculation that relies on numbers and not the actually physical sighting of the moon

2. Follow a national organization (like ISNA) or a major islamic insitution (like Zaytuna in California)

3. Follow the first physical sighting in North America

4. Follow a local sighting

5. Follow the sighting in back-home-landia.

Each contingent has their strong proponents and strong haters. Each year, without fail, each contingent will mount their evidence and begin to fling it about, usually on the internet and in the mosque after prayers.

And, each year, without fail, the national american muslim community will not celebrate and observe Ramadan in sync. This unsyncing often happens within local communities as well.

I bring this up because ISNA/fiqh council of north america has recently issued a statement regarding

Astronomical Calculations of Islamic dates

and

Moonsighting.org

is already predicting a start date for Ramadan.

So, pretty soon the whole messy brawl will start up again. For someone who comes from a muslim majority country, this bickering can seem pretty intimidating and very confusing.

So, as a vetern of 5 [edited 2009 to add, zomgosh, now I'm the veteren of 9 controversies] Ramadan/Eid controveries, I have some suggestions to offer. Now, these are purely *my* opinions from *my* personal experiences, and should not be taken as a fiqh statement of any sort. I'm not in the business of makin fatwas

1. If the mosque you/your husband attends is pretty unified on a start date, follow them. It will make it much easier to go to taraweeh prayers and celebrate eid with the community. The local community may rely on a local sighting, or they may go with the first sighting in north america. Both happen.

2. If the community is divided and the local masjid doesn't offer a start date, band together with a group of friends and observe Ramadan together. It's much easier to do if you have support around you. Or, go with the majority group, or the ones that will organize taraweeh prayers and the eid prayer.

3. I recommend against observing the start date of back-home-landia, especially if it's out of sync with what the local community decides on. While it is nice to fast and feast in time with his friends and family back home, he'll miss out on a lot in his very own surroundings. He can't very well hop on a plane and make eid prayer in his home country, and will have to pray eid prayer in his local community.

4. If this is your significant other's first Ramadan here in the United States, let him know that the american muslim community can never agree on a start date for Ramadan, has never agreed on a start date and probably never will. Let him know this a while before Ramadan approaches, so he won't get too flustered and shocked when he may want to be mentally preparing. If his grasp of english is decent, he may want to read

this article

by Imam Zaid Shakir of Zaytuna Institute about the controversy last year.

Now, in all fairness, the differences in start dates is usually only a day or two. Howeva, this can make a huuuuuuge difference for eid celebrations. Typically, eid prayer (which are required) is held on the first of Shawwal, the month after Ramadan. If you're out of sync with your local community, you may miss Eid prayers, because you're still on the last day of Ramadan and fasting while they're all getting festive.

Did I explain things well, or did I only create confusion? If something isn't clear, please let me know and inshaAllah I'll try to explain it better.

Ok, and here's some new info for 2009:

1. Excellent book by Sh. Hamza on the moon issues. I haven't finished it yet, but as always, I enjoy whatever he writes. He comes down on the side of actually physically sighting the moon, instead of calculations. You can download it and other articles on Zaytuna's Crescent Watch site. This site has moon watchers all over the country who report when the moon is right sighted in north america. AbuS now says, so, has Sh. Hamza seen the moon yet? before we start Ramadan, lol.

2. More info has also been written on the calculation method, if you're inclinded to follow that position.

[attaya_girl 1]

I realize I don't really belong to MENA, but my fiance is Muslim and I was with him in Senegal during Ramadan last year, and I've been stalking this thread for a while. Thank-you for the information! Even if he probably won't be here during Ramadan this year, I'll hold onto the information for the future.

[UmmSqueakster 54]

attaya_girl, we have plenty of honorary MENA girls, so welcome aboard. Do tell us about Ramadan in Senegal.

[~Jackie~ 30]

Welcome to the thread attaya_girl ! and good luck in your journey

Jackie

ahhh...the 'when does it start' question ...."home-landia" made me lol

[attaya_girl 1]

Thanks for the welcome

About the not knowing when Ramadan starts and ends, etc-is that not the case in home-landia for most of you? In Senegal there was disagreement as well

[doodlebugg 10]

I'm wondering what everyone does in terms of food preparation for Ramadan? I totally wish I had a HUGE extra freezer because I'd be making casseroles and freezing them now instead of cooking when I'm totally exhausted and hungry. So far each year that I've fasted making the meal has been the worst possible part.

Anyone have tried and true helpful hints to make things easier?

[R and F 34]

I fasted with Farid last year in Morocco and it was great. It was incredible all the food that we would eat at the end of the day. Gee whiz. Anyway, we will fast this year here in Texas and it will be very hard for Farid as the sun does not go down here till after 8 pm or so. I will have to think of making a good breakfast for him and a great dinner as well. I am not Muslim but I like fasting with him.