Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan kareem everyone, don't you feel the difference?


I have spent the last few days fretting about how I will manage it all - work, the early morning meals, preparing iftar, praying taraweeh. So I went off on one yesterday and the better half had to calm me down.

Then yesterday evening we got the good news that not only had Ramadan started but all of the local mosques are starting together, this hasn't happened in years so is wonderful. It doesn't guarantee that we do Eid together, but it does seem more likely insh'Allah.

Last night I felt blissful, I surprised myself by getting through taraweeh (although I'm not sure if I read 20, 24 or 27 - will have to keep something near me to keep count). I woke up easily and prepared suhoor, rather than dragging my husband downstairs with me as I usually do to help (he got a shock when he woke up and found his meal already made) and I have managed to read some Quran. I doubt this will last, but I definitely have that Ramadan feeling.

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) addressed his companions on the last day of Sha`ban, saying, "Oh people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which is a night better than a thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Heaven. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer's sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all." (Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah)