A very good day to all of you… The sun is .. well not shining, it’s about 1 am in the morning. Tomorrow we will be performing the 8th day of fasting.. so like my friends Yanz asked the other day in the shoutbox, “Siapa tak puasa, angkat kaki”. I’m still not sure whether she meant to raise up a leg or to “cabut”

I don’t know about you, but every year, I see more people not fasting, and they are not embarassed about it. When asked, they just say that they feel weak if they fast.

That seriously puzzled me, “what do they expect?” We change our lifestyle, of course there will be some change in the way our body react. The first few days are always the hardest. Then our super adaptive body will not only be as normal, it will be better in term of health.

The first war in Islam, which is “Perang Badar” happened on the 17th of Ramadhan. 313 Muslim warriors were fighting about 1000 Quraisy warriors and they won. If muslims can actually performed the fasting while at a war (a fight between life and death), why we cannot fast when we are just doing our light job. We were even get paid for that. Did the muslim in “Perang Badar” get paid?

Most of the time, we even used this fasting month as an excuse to get lighter job. I know my foremen are.. Luckily the indian foremen are very understanding and offer to do heavier job. It’s very embarassing to me, that when they are actually not fasting, but demand the lighter work.

What I’m saying is, we are fasting.. expect to experience some hardship, some hunger and thirst. Don’t whine about being hungry.. That’s just wrong.

Knowing this, I like to expand the idea to all things in life. When we started to work.. we need to expect that we are going to actually do some work. Don’t be like my foreman… Some of them, when asked to do certain work, they insist that this job must be done by another foreman. This is not supposed to happen. we were hired to work, and so we must work. Period.. By the way, off topic, the foreman finally give in and do the repair I asked him to do.

Another example, is when studying.. We must not whine on the need to study. We are student, and we must expect that they will be a lot of studying involved. So.. all we need to do is to study. Yes, sometimes the work overloads, that we can whine. but not about the need to study.

So when we are fasting… please expect to suffer some hunger, thirst and maybe fatigue. Please also expect we are going to be tested, people inviting us to “mengumpat” maybe, or tv shows showing all those sexy girls. It is when we rise beyond this challenge that Ramadhan will bring out the best in us

Any other similar examples happening in your life, please share ya

————–Personal Note————-
The day is a bit hot now.. I have to admit that sometimes I have this thought in my head to break the fast. What I do, everytime that idea comes, is to think about how Rasulullah, tied rocks to his stomach just to ease the hunger. Immediately feel ashamed of having the thought. How about you? How do you overcome those urge?

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Summary - First thing in my mind.. wrong answer

When people say Ramadhan or “Bulan puasa”, what are the first things that come to our mind? I try this question myself.. and these are the answers that first come to my mind.

1) Breaking fast with family

I enjoyed this so much.. somehow it will always be last minute, and things will go in a rush. My family often break our fast on the floor in the living room because of the extra space. We can see people going to and fro from the kitchen bringing food. When all the food is served, we will all see with awe the varieties of food, and usually end up with a silent pledge to buy fewer food the next day. (of course it will only be a pledge). And another fact amazes me is how the last 10 minutes are the longest minutes in the entire history of mankind :)… everytime!

2) Bazaar Ramadhan

For those who have no idea, it is a place where all kind of food will be sold especially for breaking fast. You can see some of the most exotic food and “kuih” there. Legend has it, that once the time has come to break fast, all food will be FOC. heheh but this legend had never been tested simply because I never want to break fast there

3) Morey (pronunced Moray), “Malam Tujuh Likur” etc

/end answer

Truthfully, I loved everything about Ramadhan especially the above. And I have no intention to ask you not to love them… This is our culture, if we don’t stand up to it, who will?

That’s when it occur to me, that I remember Ramadhan only in its cultural form. Ramadhan is actually an “ibadah” (worship), but instead of remembering all the blessing and forgiveness in Ramadhan, I had choose to remember the cultural side of it, which is all the answers above.

We don’t remember Ramadhan as the month we should double all our “ibadah”, cry for fogiveness in the silent night, trying to earn that Lailatul Qadar, or the month where we should train ourselves to be better, and most importantly to continue the better state after Ramadhan.

It’s actually good that we had integrated our culture with Islam. That’s the beauty of Islam.. But the danger will come, when the cultural side had already overwhelmed the true nature of is, we no longer see Ramadhan as an “ibadah”.

What do you think? how do you remember Ramadhan? cultural or from Islam POV? Personally… I still like to associate Ramadhan with our culture I think, it’s still ok provided you know what Ramadhan actually is.

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Summary - What is Ramadhan?

It’s that time of the year again… Ramadhan is here It is most probably to start this coming Thursday. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends reading, “Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan”.

This will be the first of the many tributes to Ramadhan I will write. The entries written is dedicated generally to all of us Muslim reading, specifically to myself… since I admit that I have A LOT to improve.

So can I ask what is Ramadhan to you? Is it just the name of the month where Muslim will be fasting? or does it have any other definition to you? We must first establish this before we even start fasting. Otherwise what difference would our fasting be from the diet practised worldwide.

Ramadhan is actually more than a mere month. It is basically a training academy for us muslim. So are we ready to go into this training? Just imagine you’re walking and an old friends come to see you and ask you to join a training. What would be your first reaction?

You will then ask “What training?”, “To achieve what?” and “What’s in it for me?”. Don’t you agree that these responds are exactly what you need to know before you enroll in any training or program?

So what do you think the answers would be for the three questions? It is interesting that this training academy is actually supervised by no other, but by us ourselves. If we don’t want to fast, who will know? It is entirely up to us… so as the supervisor of this training, do you have the answers for the three questions? No answers are wrong answers I tell you, simply because these answers are basically what we want for ourselves. So if it is not too much trouble please share your opinion here. If not, just thinking about the answers is very much appreciated.

We really have to know what we’re doing. Take eating for example, “How?” We put food in our mouth, chew and swallow. “To achieve what?” a healthier body, “What’s in it for me?” no more hunger. All answers are equally important.

• If we don’t know how to swallow, there’s no point reading all those health books and knowing how a chicken would taste.

• If we don’t know anything about health, we will be eating, and we will not be hungry but the food we eat will eventually kill us

• If for example our tounge has loss its sense of taste and thus we cannot enjoy the taste of food anymore. We will be eating healthy food but after sometime, the desire will deteriorate and we may end up (hilang selera makan) and possibly sick.

- Other related entries -

• Dari Mana Nak Kemana - The beginning of this blog
• The Story - Childhood memories of an “almost-fight” happened during Ramadhan night

————–Personal Note————-
Again… “Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan” to all :). Hopefully we can gain other thing this month other than weight :)

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 This is the third part of How To Make Decision Series. You may want to check Part 1 and Part 2

What? You end up getting the same point using the tool described before? hehe don’t panic. It happens all the time. It actually shows that both choice is actually of the same importance and meaning to you. Either path you took will not be the wrong one. But the problem now is our mind. We can’t just let it all go. That’s where the final steps come in.

5) Solat Istikharah
I’m afraid this option is only for the muslim friends. I’m not going into details on how to perform the solat but on how actually the solat will help us.

• First, we must know what we really want. We have done our homework and know that both option simply of the same importance. We know that whatever we choose, it is already the best decision made. What concern us now is how will the future be if we decide on A. The truth is, we will never know. So speak to Him in your doa. Ask Him to help you now. Preferably youspeak to Him out loud.Then only it will trigger your subconcious mind to chip in.

• Perform the Solat with all concentration (khusyuk) you can give Him. Don’t think about your problem just yet. That will not go anywhere, it will still be there when you are done.

• Allah will not answer your question like a Forum Perdana. Sometime He will give you clarity and courage to decide. Sometime you will still be indecisive but everythings turns out OK. Just believe that if you pray for Him whole heartly, everything will be taken care of.

• Last but not least, Tawakal. (The act of doing everything withinyour power and leave the rest to Allah). There’s just something well outside our power, and it will be waste of energy to worry about it. (”Buang Karan” eheh). An example would be, our sun goes supernova. We just can’t do anything, maybe go to another planet. Other than that, why worry now?

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