~ Starting over: August 2011

Friday 19 August 2011

Ramadhan 1432H post #6

#Somalia

Somalis from southern Somali pray outside their makeshift shelter during Ramadan, at a refugee camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, Saturday, Aug, 6, 2011.

(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

(via drsonnet)

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Ramadhan 1432H post #5

Let's be thankful today that we can fast without having to hide it from anyone.

Because some people don't have it that easy.

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"Even though my family knows I converted to Islam I am still hiding my fasting. Alhamdulillah! I’ve fasted every day so far without them knowing!

Working makes it super easy to keep from breaking my fast. I make my “lunch” the night before and I eat that for suhoor the next morning. Then I take the empty containers with me to work so that when I get picked up for work it looks like I ate my lunch at work. Our family usually eats super late so its not hard to make iftar on time. I offer to cook dinner a lot this month too.

Sundays are going to be more difficult because my family usually likes to cook something special and eat it pretty early in the day. At least earlier than we do on non “special” days. Its special because its church day. Anyways this Sunday my prayers were answered and it was made easy! We didn’t go to church because my mom had a really bad toothache and didn’t get any sleep the night before. Alhamdulillah I appreciate any break from church I can get. So I didn’t eat at all and around 4 my sister started talking about dinner so I talked her into watching her favorite movie with me. That killed two hours. I stalled the last two hours by “helping” her cook dinner. Or basically taking a one hour job and dragging it out to a 2 hour job.

Alhamdulillah please make dua’a that the next 3 weeks can be as easy as this week was, insha’Allah."

I <3 Ramadan :]

(via perica786)

Friday 5 August 2011

Ramadhan 1432H post #4

Reading about someone who is not a Muslim but wants to actually try practice the religion, somehow touched my heart. :)

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"I’m not muslim. I know very little of the religion. But this month I’ll be participating in Ramadan and learning as much as I can about the religion. This will include reading the Quran from start to finish. I’m not sure if practicing this will be a slap in the face to “true” Muslims due to my lifestyle choices but I firmly believe that this practice is a great opportunity to gain self discipline and humility.

I’ve never been a huge fan of religion despite the importance my dad pounded in my head. I went to church like most children but I guess the lord’s word never spoke to me. However I was well aware what Christians thought were abominations translated by my father: Homosexuals and Muslims.

There’s a mosque two minutes from our neighborhood. Every Friday I remembered heavy traffic around the church making it impossible to get in the neighborhood. There were even police to direct the chaos because so many people attended. It was notoriously known as Muslim Friday or Raghead Friday by all the high school kids caught in the traffic on their way home to start the weekend. I always associated the religion with racial slurs and terrorism. In fact, when the mosque was developing over the years my dad would drive by and call it the satan worshiper church. He truly believed that they didn’t believe in god and “if you don’t believe in god, you believe in Satan”. My how Christianity is often construed with a selfish and jealous deity!

Anyways, this post is not about my lack of faith and the reason why I don’t practice a religion. I guess I’m keeping a record of how this experience goes for me. I also want to inform my friends and family that every religion can be beautiful one if we step away from the ignorance. ..."

(via thirdtry)