Welcome Ramadhan

Ramadhan is indeed a blessed month waited by all muslims. Today, the sky is not hot and fiery as usual. Even the sky is welcoming the blessed month. With the coming of the blessed month, satan cry because they will be chained.

Ramadhan should be waited and celebrated more than Eid Mubarak or Hari Raya Aidul Fitri itself. But that's not the case here in Malaysia. In Middle East, Muslims will take leave is possible to enable them to fulfill the holy month with reading the holy Qur'an, performing prayers, giving alms, attending religious talk. And when Ramadhan is nearing its end, it will be cried upon for fear that we won't be around in the next Ramadhan. Indeed, there are some of our friends that were around in the last Ramadhan but are no longer with us this Ramadhan. Two of my uncles are not around anymore. May Allah bless them both for they are good men, always helping others. So too is Ustaz Asri from Rabbani that is missed by many Malaysians. The next question is, will we be around next Ramadhan?

Ramadhan is a madrasah. Ramadhan teaches muslims to be patient, to stop for a while from our hectic schedule and think about where we are heading after death, to feel for ourselves how the poor feel having to fast when there's no food around to eat, to think about the unfortunate ones like single mothers or orphans. If all these things crosses our mind often, it will feel almost like a sin to eat enormously and luxuriously like many muslims did when breaking their fast. We just defy the purpose of fasting. If Ramadhan is an exam month, just how much mark do we score in term of percentage?

This year when the economy is not so good perhaps we can learn to obstruct ourselves from spending on unnecessary things. My husband and sons will wear the baju melayu that they wore last hari raya. No point buying new one when the old ones are still as good as new. Except for little Aiman, he has outgrown his baju melayu.

Can I make a suggestion to everyone? When buying food at the Ramadhan market, can we buy some cookies and give it to the orphanage house, the poor? Or the very least, offer our prayer to everyone, muslims and non muslim alike. After all Islam is 'rahmatan lil alamin' or a blessing to the whole whole. Blessing to the whole world means to all human kind, tree and animal. Islam has a code of ethic of how we should treat every thing with due respect. Even to tree and animal.

May this Ramadhan be our best Ramadhan ever. May Allah bless us all. Amin.

alms - (in historical contexts) money or food given to poor people.

defy - resist or refuse to obey

obstruct - prevent or hinder