Ramadan, as most people know it, is 30 days of fasting from sunrise to sunset. To Muslims, Ramadan is a time of self-control and spiritual training, and they await these special 30 days, which this year starts March 1st. They use this time to get closer to God by spending more time in activities that will help them connect with Him.
Some of the activities include offering charity and extra prayers, reading the Quran, and going to the mosque as much as possible. Ramadan gives us the opportunity to practice self-discipline, sacrifice, and to have empathy for those who are less fortunate. As a Muslim myself, Ramadan is not only an amazing 30 days, but also a time to bring family together. We wake up before sunrise to eat before starting our fast; we then fast all day, do as many good deeds as possible, and get together at sunset to break our fast. We then all go and attend the nightly prayer at the mosque every night, where we get an opportunity to meet others in the community.
To me, dinner is always a special time because we come together and talk about all the exciting things that happened during the day but it’s more special in Ramadan because we break our fast together. It’s a tradition or a Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to break the fast with a date, so we try to follow the same tradition and break our fast with a date or water. In my family, we have our own tradition to break our fast with almond stuffed dates. Then we’ll have samosas and lastly the main dish. Another Ramadan tradition for our family is making goodie bags of treats like dates, honey, nuts, and other edible goodies to share with our neighbors. In exchange we get to enjoy the ones we get from other Muslim families who live in the neighborhood. This is a tradition that’s done in other places of the world as well.
Another special part of Ramadan that isn’t very talked about are the last ten days. These days are the most important of all 30 days as we commemorate God for sending the last part of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In addition to that, we hope to catch the night of power, or Laylatul Qadr (lay-la-tul ka-dar). This is the most important day in the entire year of the Islamic calendar and though we don’t know the exact day, it’s one of the odd nights in the last ten days of Ramadan. On this night, God accepts all our prayers and every good deed is multiplied by 70,000 times.
After the 30 days of fasting are spent, we celebrate with Eid Al-Fitr, a 3 day festival to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Ramadan might be seen as a normal 30 days to people not celebrating, but to Muslims, it’s a time of peace, happiness, and clarity.
