Round-about Al Ain

As salaamu’alaykum and Hello all, I hope you all had a prosperous Ramadan and peaceful Eid.
Ramadan as always, flew by and disappeared as quickly as it came. As wonderful as Eid is, my heart felt heavy at the thought of another Ramadan gone, a time for reflection and duaa that is unique to this month only.

I’m sure many of you back home want to know what Ramadan here was like. Well, it was great in the sense that you knew that just about everyone else was fasting, and here and there you would see massive tents set up by the government to feed the poor.

There were iftaars (meal to open fast) every now and then which are great – in moderation for me. You don’t want to be out eating in large groups of people too often in Ramadan, especially when you know sometimes it will distract from the focus of Ramadan. It seems to be very easy to lose focus arranging meals and gatherings at every given opportunity whilst the essence of the month easily dilutes. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing nicer than to share your evening meal with a few close friends or even someone new, but I think moderation is the key word. It’s very special when you can share your meal and keep conversation and thought in tune with Ramadan, but it is not always achievable.

Working hours totally change in this month. Everything opens after iftaar and then it’s all a rush if you need to shop etc. My son’s school finished at 1.15 pm – now it’s 2.00pm, and most schools /workplaces were pretty much the same. Restaurants would open at iftaar time and many had lovely Ramadan buffets on…so it was a nice atmosphere all in all.

What puzzled me was if we had to go out shopping and it was iftaar time, we would naturally open our fast and make way for the prayer room, turning back I would see everyone make a bee line for the food outlets…?? Hardly anyone would ever be in the prayer rooms. This baffled me, and I can only assume they would pray after eating their meals. Even after praying promptly and heading for a meal you would find a restaurant almost out of food by time you got there. Strange.

I also missed Ramadan back home, it’s not all bad there you know I think Ramadan is what you personally make of it, and despite where you are, it is an intimate time between you and God alone. Only you know why you are fasting, only you can gauge how far you have slipped between this year and the last, only you know how hard you are having to work to control your tongue, thoughts and actions. This does not change wherever your location is.

Eid was strange this year, Alhumdulillah I fell ill, so it passed peacefully by through snotty tissues and half a day in bed. Hubby and the cat sprawled out in the living room, and me and the kids in our rooms…It was still wonderful, we had our day, we had a new day and that is celebration in itself.

Eid salah is prayed at the Eid ga?? It’s a huuuge yard out in the open for salah…it was amazing. If I can I will post pics…or please access it on hubbies blog if he gets round to putting them up before me.

What I liked about Eid, is the atmosphere leading up to Eid; absolute mayhem in the shops, queues everywhere (btw isn’t queues a strange word to spell?), manic, panic madness. And no, I don’t like all that, but this is what I am used to seeing every year at x-mas back home, and it was quite fascinating to see it here at this time of year.
Then on Eid day when we went for our meal, it was like a ghost town outside, until the evening, when again it turned into a noisy bustling town in the midst of merriment. However it was pleasant. Anyone here ever been on the ‘curry mile’ in Manchester on Eid? I haven’t but have heard many sorry tales, and am glad I have never witnessed it, because it makes me cringe just hearing about it. Here, families were out enjoying life, and each other in a manner that was exited and hyper but not at the cost of making things difficult for others, or at the cost of proving themselves total idiots.
What I missed most was my family. My usual visit in the evening was this year in my heart, and I felt alone for them. I pray Allah makes it easy on them.

Tarra for now chucks…