My Ramadan

I liked the title about my Ramadan, but I think it would have been nicer if the crux of the article was clearly stated. It`s kind of lost in the details. The message is naive but sweet. I am not fasting this year per the instructions of my GI Specialist. I have done my share of uth-pehraa fasting for over 15-20 years. Now, my system cannot take it and I have been advised to hold off and assist a needy one in fasting. Although sehri is an important component of the fasting ritual, it`s real difficult to wake up that early and start filling in your tummy. During this Ramadan, my focus is to work on the spirit of fasting than the actual ritual. Happy fasting to all those who are diligently focused on the ritual. Make sure you take care of your tummies and do NOT drink caffeine on empty stomach. That`s a killer.

But right before going downstairs, as always, I would peak outside the curtains and enjoy the sight. 4:40 in the morning and every house in the neighborhood had its lights switched on.

Dear Fiza,
Thanks for this beautiful essay.

Lovely.

Ramadhan or not, we all miss our college days and our childhood even if it was full of hardships and hardwork.

so bibi, paraunThay kha te lassi pee..and worry not.

So Fiza studies at Berkeley and still believes in nonsensical rituals!

Proof that you can take the girl out of Pakistan but you can`t take Pakistan out of the girl!

Very nice write-up, dealing with two great subjects: America as a ``nation of nations``. And Ramzan, which is indeed good training in self-discipline and clean and simple living.

#6 aaahh chacha ji`s MNT: Multi Nation Theory.

Re: # 5

Harimau says,

``So Fiza studies at Berkeley and still believes in nonsensical rituals!

Proof that you can take the girl out of Pakistan but you can`t take Pakistan out of the girl!``

That’s it. Hundred percent correct at least about Karachi-walas who are wallowing in ritualistic indulgence. I could read only a few paras full of nostalgic self-indulgence. She says at the end:

``I understood what God really intended making us all fast in the same month, at the same time, in the same way.``

What she means by `all` and `the same month, at the same time, in the same way`. If she meant by `all` then I may tell her that God had quite different intentions than those of Allah. Allah says ``I have written (in genes perhaps) fasting for you as I had done for the previous people (Note: Said nothing about the succeeding people). What Allah had written for the previous people in this respect I came to know by chance. While working in the Punjab Secretariat in the Finance Department I had to allow advance payment of monthly pay to the Christian employees of the government. I thought it would be a simple matter to copy the previous orders. But when I saw the file I was surprised to find that, like Muslim Eid, Easter had also been observed at different dates despite the fact that the Christian followed the solar calendar. I consulted the head of Christian union in the secretariat about the phenomenon. He told me that at the end of 40 days (or so?) of observing fast they celebrate Easter on the next Wednesday. So the difference is not due to the calendar date but due to the day of the week. What made me all the more surprised was the observance of fasting by the Christians as I had a number Christian friends and colleagues but they had never mentioned about fasting as the Muslims are wont to do. So I asked my interlocutor why this was that we never came across a Christian making a show of fasting as Muslims do. He told me that it was not allowed by their religion to make a show of fasting even by one’s behavior and that it is ordained that a fasting which has been made a show of shall never be accepted by God. It may be mentioned here that fasting for the Christians is for 24 hours, with no break for the night perhaps.

I was ashamed to realise how little we know about other religions even in the 21st century. This is perhaps because Isalam rejects outright all religions as `Kufr`, even those we call the `Religions of the Book`.

Re: # 6

Well said.

Ramadan is about introspection, loving others and NOT listening to a mullah`s hate speech. It is the time to closely interact with the non-muslims and see how the mullahs are the real hate pots of this world.

tahmed writes <<< Very nice write-up, dealing with two great subjects: America as a ``nation of nations``. And Ramzan, which is indeed good training in self-discipline and clean and simple living. >>>

This person tahmed, a dispicable peon of the West, will not miss a single opportunity, real or contrived, to sing the praises of America. The fact is that community and humanity is at its lowest level in this society that has been geared for maximum work and profitibility with everything else shaped around it in an artificial manner. When the author says, ``I was all alone``, this is a psychological fact not only for immigrants that feel it much more (as do excluded members of this society like minorities and the elderly and single women bringing up children etc), but for locals as well, it is a dog eat dog world where kindness is sneered at and if the market doesn`t deem you important, you are discraded with total ingratitude, invisible from the mainstream- all alone. Just go around your city restaurants and look at the people sitting there alone in the evening, they belong to these same excluded groups. All this is very good for profitability also, if you have a relationship/community void, you try to fill that up with material commodities and the corporations bank on that.

That is the true picture of America that worshippers of the West, those who want to keep this inhumanity going, for the benefit of corporations that have sacrificed every human relation for their purposes, including husband/wife, mother/children relationships, will keep singing its praises. There is nothing to miss about Ramadan in America, it does not have a social component in the US, and by the way its purpose is not self-discipline as this dimwit is suggesting, its purpose is to develop social consciousness, taqwa, when you experience want firsthand you become more conscious of the needs of others in society who have no choice.

#10 by masadi

Yaar Masadi, why do you continue to live in this land where ``community and humanity is at its lowest level in this society that has been geared for maximum work and profitibility with everything else shaped around it in an artificial manner``? Why not move back to Pakistan? Should be easy no?

<<< Why not move back to Pakistan?>>>

Very soon, inshallah, but not on your timetable.

#12 by masadi

Very soon, inshallah, but not on your timetable.

Yaar please take your own sweet time, but make sure it is before the Feds home in on you. God forbid, if anything happens to you, the loss will entirely be Chowk`s.

Ramzan is overrated. Why is this woman telling us what she thinks ramzan actually means ? For me ramzan is what you make for iftari.

Also, self important masadi needs therapy.

``........sacrificed every human relation for their purposes, including husband/wife, mother/children relationships, will...................``

You mean the relationship between an employer-employee, a single mother and her child, a gay parent with their kids, a fellow travellor on the airplane, a fellow stamp collector, a fellow classical musician, a lecturer and his stundent in a Western University is NOT a ``HUMAN`` relationship because they do not fall into your bookish understanding of what human relationship means????

Why do Islamists have to keep their reference of human relationships confined to those relations prescribed in the religious books???

It proves clearly that Asadi has a fantasy world reference of human relations belonging to the dark ages and would like all of us to go back to that life!!

teshah writes <<< Allah says ``I have written (in genes perhaps) fasting for you as I had done for the previous people (Note: Said nothing about the succeeding people). What Allah had written for the previous people in this respect I came to know by chance. >>>

Some people`s stupidity (taking every opportunity to spew their hate for Islam knows no bounds). When a book is talking to a reader that is `present` it serves no purpose to talk about ``future generations`` when no time limit is placed on the prescription.

Then he writes <<< He told me that at the end of 40 days (or so?) of observing fast they celebrate Easter on the next Wednesday. So the difference is not due to the calendar date but due to the day of the week. >>>

There is absolutely no connection between Easter which celebrates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and the Muslim fast of Ramadan or Eid. Further the fasting in Christianity is not standard, has evolved and is practiced variantly unlike Ramadan. Regarding making a show of their religion, Christians will outdo all others going door to door peddling their religion and carrying it on their sleeves, so what you`re trying to prove regarding their humility is mere BS.

Finally what is most atrocious in this post is his comment stating <<< I was ashamed to realise how little we know about other religions even in the 21st century. This is perhaps because Isalam rejects outright all religions as `Kufr`, even those we call the `Religions of the Book`. >>>

What is atrocious in this claim is that he started with a verse of the Quran, then confirms that about earlier people and then blames the Quran for keeping him ignorant of other religions, what kind of circular disconnected bs is that? Why you don`t know about other religions is because you don`t bother to find out. Islam is much more accomodative of Christians and Jews than they are of Islam, and address them in much more respectible terms, in its main text, than the Christians or the Jews do to either the prophet or Islam.


wasif2 writes <<< Also, self important masadi needs therapy >>>

You need to return to the hole you emerged from.