My First Ramadhan

I really can't remember vividly what it was like during my first ramadhan and I "think" I started fasting when I was 7 years old. Maybe because I was born Muslim, the thrill of ramadhan was not sort of things that stuck to my mind.

Thus, when I read the story of new reverts to Islam telling their first ramadhan experience, I really envy them because they were fasting based on their effort to please their new founding Creator whereas I was fasting just for the sake of following what my family did that time.

My only hope is from now onward , I will go through the month of ramadhan with full knowledge of its blessing and by the end of ramadhan , I will come out of it as a fully "recharged" muslim..InsyaAllah..

My First Ramadan By Khalid Paschalis

It was around the last days of Sha`ban (the eighth month of the Hijri calendar), and I was speaking with my Muslim friends about Ramadan and fasting. I had already read of the importance and benefits of fasting, and I really wanted to live this experience. I was very anxious, though. I kept thinking that it might be difficult for me to abstain from food and water during the daytime for a whole month! My best friend gave me advice on how to fast and be able to make it for the whole day. Then Ramadan arrived! I remember myself waking up very early to eat my sahur (the meal before fasting). I remembered my friend's advice to drink much water. I ate and then I performed the Fajr Prayer. It felt different from the other times. It was something I can't explain, I was actually really living the prayer, it just felt great! Later that day I went to the university. I was anxious that if I saw the other students eating or drinking water, it would make me thirsty and hungry. Anyway, I felt confident and went on. During that day I didn't really feel very hungry or thirsty, al-hamdu lillah. It wasn't as hard as I first thought it would be. I actually felt better and I felt my stomach clean. During the next days along with my medical studies, I studied a lot about Islam. I was reading the Qur'an and Hadith, I was talking with my friends. It was a great opportunity to widen my knowledge of Islam. My mother was not very pleased with my fasting and she kept telling me that I would not make it and that it would harm me. Al-hamdu lillah, she was wrong! I had a problem with my stomach before Ramadan and it was cured just because of my fasting! Another good opportunity the holy month gave me was that I met more Muslims in my community. I met many students I hadn't known of before, and they were really pleased to welcome me as a new Muslim in their company. We had iftar (meal to break the fast) together some days and we spoke on a variety of things. How great it was! When Ramadan was slowly coming to its end, I actually got used to fasting and it was something I knew I would miss later. The last night before `Eid, I was feeling a different person — a better person. I woke up very early next day and went to the mosque for the `Eid Prayer. It was more crowded than I had ever seen it before, and I realized that Muslims in my community aren't as few as I first thought. The prayer finished and I went with my friends to eat breakfast in the university cafeteria. How strange it seemed to me to eat at that time! I missed that period until now that Ramadan has begun once again. This is my second Ramadan and it is so the same and yet so different from my previous one! The first Ramadan is really an experience never forgotten! Remembrances of a First Ramadan By Aisha Robertson Women praying in a mosque. This upcoming Ramadan will be my fourteenth, al-hamdu lillah, and I am looking forward to it, in sha' Allah. I was 27 years old when I converted to Islam and consequently spent 27 years celebrating Christian holidays and birthdays. I did go through a transition period of adjustment to my new faith and way of life and al-hamdu lillah, I feel a deep sense of ownership and pride in the Islamic holidays I now celebrate as a Muslimah. After converting to Islam, I was quick to learn salah (prayer) and wear hijab. I was incredibly grateful to Allah Almighty (subhanahu wa ta`ala) for the hidaya (guidance to the true path) I was given and I wanted to be identified in public as a Muslim. I could hardly wait for my first Ramadan because this would be the pillar of Islam that I would do with the whole Muslim community. It is true that fasting is an individual act. However, breaking the fast and sharing iftars (meals to break the fast) along with performing the Tarawih Prayer are things that are usually done collectively. Before converting to Islam I had fasted the 40 days of Lent; however, it was not the same as the fast of Ramadan because I did drink water during the day. Even though I had this experience of fasting previously, I was still quite anxious about going without food and water during the day. I was not sure if I could do it, especially being in America where most people are not Muslim and daily life is not adjusted for Ramadan. But I knew that if Allah commanded me to do it then it was possible. I recall being very lonely during my first Ramadan. I was a new convert and I was single. Basically, I woke up for sahur (meal before fasting) and ate it alone, broke my fast alone and prayed Tarawih Prayer alone. I was a university graduate student and I lived alone. The Muslim Students Association at my university was dominated by brothers and consequently the iftars they held were for brothers only. So I really could not attend them. I did not know many sisters at that time and the local masjid was very far from where I lived. I did not have a car to drive to the masjid for community iftars and Tarawih Prayer. Al-hamdu lillah, I did feel however, that Allah was always with me. In a way, I began to feel very close to Allah. One of the best things that happened during my first Ramadan was that I got married, al-hamdu lillah. I was actually engaged but because of my circumstances and lack of family support we decided it would be best to marry even though it was Ramadan. Al-hamdu lillah, I was then able to eat sahur with my husband, pray, and break the fast with him. It brought me a great sense of peace and contentment, al-hamdu lillah. I also was able to go to the masjid for the Tarawih Prayer one time, and I loved the entire experience of praying with so many sisters. I began to feel that I was part of the larger community of Muslims. One of my friends, Aminah, is also a convert. I asked her about her experiences during her first Ramadan and I found we shared a similar experience of being anxious. Sister Aminah also had a wonderful experience when meeting other Muslims. Aminah told me she felt "a strangeness because I wasn't used to being treated like family from people I barely knew. Especially since I was used to the kind of people who only treated you right when they wanted something." Sister Aisha is another convert friend who lives in Kenya. Aisha explained to me that she found her first Ramadan to be spiritually fulfilling even though it was also a bit lonely for her. Aisha told me, "I really needed to replenish my spiritual needs and I loved the sacrifice. I visited the masjid several times and from then my masjid phobia disappeared for good. I had this phobia to go to the masjid because I wasn't sure I would be able to say the prayers correctly, as I had learned to pray on my own through books and used to do it in the house." When Aisha told me about her masjid phobia I smiled because I went through the same experience. Aisha also told me that her `Eid was rather uneventful because she, along with her husband and small daughter, had no other Muslim family. However, they were thankful to Allah the Almighty for everything. Aisha explained, "You see both of us being reverts, we have no close Muslim ties, this is a time Muslims want to be with their close ones and so no one seems to want guests. That is when I came up with a dream to set up a house for reverts where they can feel at home especially during times like Ramadan!" I think Aisha's idea is a great one and I pray it comes to fruition. I was able to spend my first `Eid Al-Fitr with my husband and his family but I still felt a bit lonely. Perhaps it is because my own family was not able to celebrate with me. Allah promises to test us and I just view all of my lonely experiences as a test from Allah the Most High. These experiences are also a reaffirmation of my reason for converting to Islam, which was for the sake of Allah alone and not for pleasing people or for other worldly benefits.

From Islamonline.net