SUNDAY 10th MARCH 2024
‘Twas the night before Ramadan - or so we thought.
I always enjoy the day before Ramadan starts, especially if it lands on a weekend, as it allows us to get ready for the month and there’s always an excited buzz about the house as we get prepared, along with a few nerves as we anticipate the challenge ahead.
Admittedly, the month before Ramadan is when you’re meant to do a lot of the preparation, but this one feels like it’s come about very quickly, and I doubt we're the only ones scrambling. Growing up in a non-Muslim household it always reminds me of Christmas Eve (along with the cupboard full of things you’re not allowed to have until Christmas Day – or in this case, Eid)
That’s exactly how our Sunday started off. We started making our lists and headed to the supermarket to stock up on food for carefully planned iftars, made calendars for the younger members of the family and dug out the Ramadan decorations. We cleaned the house from the top to bottom with added vigour (you never know which Auntie or Uncle is going to turn up unannounced during Ramadan).
Ramadan is a great time for reflecting on the past year and we put aside some time to think about what we want to improve on during this time. Zakat (charity) is an obvious choice, but this is more than just money. Giving is an important pillar in Islam and even more so during Ramadan, and we both expressed a want to volunteer more of our time this year to charitable causes. This might come in the form of making food to hand out at our local mosque, or endeavour to become more involved with the charities we donate to monthly. I also expressed wanting to learn more. Whilst my husband and I have been a couple since 2015, I still feel that there are some gaps in my knowledge of his Pakistani cultural background, but I know that I can bridge these at any time in the year with my husband and his family’s help. Alongside this, Ramadan is very much an opportunity and a moment in time for me to increase religious knowledge and indulge in some Islamic lessons. My mother-in-law would probably appreciate fewer questions on things she’s already told me hundreds of times.
With fasting comes Suhoor (pre-sunrise meal) and this is something I have struggled with every time this month comes around due to not being a morning person. I’m a ‘grab-a-breakfast-bar-on-your-way-out-of-the-door-and-eat-it-while-you-run-for-the-bus’ type of person.
Fasting for nearly 2/3 of the day is both a mental and physical challenge. Suhoor is important as it equips the body with the right nutrients to keep you energized for a full day of fasting. To avoid missing it and the morning prayers (sorry), I’ve decided to meal prep ahead of the next few weeks so spent some hours of my Sunday getting this ready.
We had to pause the Ramadan prep for a few hours as Sunday was, of course, Mother’s Day. There’s a quote in Islam that says, ‘Paradise lies at the feet of your mother’. So, while Mother’s Day isn't a traditional Muslim holiday, it fits in well with the themes of kindness and gratitude and we always celebrate it.
We arrived at my in-laws to a little bit of Ramadan chaos, as it slipped our minds that the moon might not have made an appearance yet. If you Google ‘Ramadan dates’ you’ll be given a ‘dates may vary’ warning because, despite the fact it been going for over a thousand years, predicting the start of Ramadan is still a challenge.
The Islamic calendar is based off a lunar cycle, and the 9th month is determined by the sighting of the crescent moon. No moon, no Ramadan. Some people follow the Saudi moon and others their closest Islamic country (Morrocco), so that's why people end up starting Ramadan on different days. There are whole moon-watching teams across the Middle East, but even then, it’s often up to the local mosque to determine when the community should start fasting. We’d been prepping for a Monday start date only to get a call and finding out that we were a day early.
It's almost just as well because I forget to buy the dates. There is a debate in our household on whether it’s called ‘Suhoor’ or ‘Sehri’ with no one able to agree. We break our fasts with a date.
Photo of a Ramadan Calendar in progress and my Mother's Day cake