My Ramadan Journal

[Tyler]

So I wanted to make a post about my journey through my first Ramadan. First of all, to all Muslims and observers out there: Ramadan kareem! Ramadan, as you may or may not know, is the 9th month of the Muslim lunar calendar. It is the month in which Muhammad, peace be upon him, recieved the Holy Qur'an from Allah(God) through the archangel Gabriel. In honor of this month, Muslims around the world preform what is one of the five pillars of Islam: to feast from Sunrise to Sunset. During this time Muslims are excpected to read the entire Qur'an, refrain from harsh language, crude actions, and to attempt to further their spiritual and moral lives. Muslims also like to take this time to teach others about the world of Islam. If you've ever been curious about Islam, please do not hesitate to post a question here. If I cannot personally answer your question, I can find the answer through my recourses for you.

Day 1:
I began my day by reading Surah 1, 114, 113, 112, 111, 110, and 109. After reading I reflected on what these surahs said about my life and evaluated myself in these situations. My conclusions were that I have been under attack by many of the evil jinns because I have left myself open to deception. I hope that through this month I will become a more pious individual and insha'allah a better representation of God. I tried to stay fairly inactive during the day time as I did not want to expend a lot of energy due to the fact I could not eat til sunset. At sunset, I went to the hookah bar and had dinner with some of the Muslims. While they did traditional prayer, I again reflected on being more pious in my actions. I decided that I would smoke some Tangiers Marachino Cherry after dinner and sat around and talked with a few of my friends about some of our encounters with ignorance of Islam and ways we could help make a change, however small, to remedy this situation. This journal is my attempt at doing just that.

End day 1.

[thecyrax]

Mad props FSU!

I've fasted for Ramadan 2 times before (not so much for religious reasons, but because my father is muslim and I wanted to lessen his pain, lol).

It can get tough so stay strong!

[Tyler]

It was pointed out that I accidentally put feast from dusk til dawn when it should be fasting from dawn to dusk :-P

[Majid]

Ramadan Kareem! Did you recently convert the islam? I ask since it's your first ramadan.

[Tyler]

I have a complicated faith, but I'll just say that I draw from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in my faith.

[supersubby]

faith is faith fsu there is no label. you should listen to a lecture called the lives of the prophets by anwar al walaki, he goes through the lives of all the prophets prior to prophet Mohammed Peace be upon Him. its really interesting i think you will like it.

[Dr. B]

Though not an observer myself, I am familiar with deprivation as an act of respect and appreciation. I'd just like to offer encouragement and good faith towards all who are participating.

I look forward to following your journey.

[Tyler]

Dat 2:
Not going to lie, the 2nd day was much harder. I had to do so much running around for church, school, and random errands that I worked up a hunger really early. Bad idea. I managed to make it to the sundown set by the weather channel before going midevil on some food. After eating I loaded up my last bowl of SB which was scraped out of the remenents of Melon Dew Orange and Vanilla. Worked out pretty well though. While smoking I read through Suras 2, 3 and 4, and against had to reflect on how they applied to my life. I realized that a lot of people's misonceptions of Islam, Christianity, and many religions in general spawn from the fact they take it too literally. Scriptures that say we must kill X person for X reason aren't mean to be taken literally, as they were written a long time ago to match the timeframe. Imagine for a second, how one would be able to possibly write for the future so far down the road. If people who lived in the 600-700 CE era heard about the things we have to day they'd probably think you were crazy. Hell, if you would have told our grandparents that we'd have computers and cell phones the way we do today they'd call you crazy. I think it's necessary that people who want to criticize religions to learn about the tradition behind the scripture. Often times they're so wrong there's no point refuting their arguement but that would allow for ignorance to grow.

The new semester starts tomorrow and I'm hoping everything works out and I'm able to stay strong insha'allah. I really need to make du'a to thank God for His blessings He's giving me with how my grad school situation worked out. Hopefully I'll also learn how to properly pray in Muslim fashion as I think it'll help me spiritually in my journey.

[Tyler]

Day 3:
So, I'm updating this late due to being insanely busy. I was fine throughout the day up until about 8 o clock when it was really bad. I was stressed, starving, and not in a good mood but tried to maintain composure. My calming method was reading the Qur'an suras 5, 6, 7, 108, 107, and 106. I didn't do much reflecting on what I read which I probably should do once I'm done with today's readings. Basically day 3 was just a stressful day in life. First day of semester, tons of stuff to do, not fun. Today should be better.

[Tyler]

I'm going to lump day 4 and 5 into one post here.

These two days were kind of hectic, just not as bad as day 3. I started my new semester in grad school and have some crazy hard classes plus I'm teaching one on my own. The not eating part is getting easier, but not smoking is not. I'm used to waking up and smoking a bowl to get me going but I can't do that right now. I only read up through Sura 10 in these last two days due to stress in school but tomorrow I should finish out the 100s since I'll have all of my class reading and first day of classes finished and most of my prep for next week done. Getting ready to chow down on some lasanga that should be done about 10 min before sundown which is exactly enough time to set up and feast!

[Moefasaaa]

ahh man, alhamdulillah, this is very inspiring. I am a Pakistani Muslim and haven't ever really been very dedicated to Islam, although always faithful. This Ramadan, I decided to begin reading and memorizing the Qur'an and praying all five prayers with concentration and, man, it is the most amazing thing ever. I am stress-free and so hopeful in life...FSU, you are the man. Stay strong brother, and insha'Allah this will be a great experience for both of us. Ramadan Kareem once again, I look forward to reading your journal entries. My Ramadan's been going pretty well as well, it will get interesting when my semester begins August 31st...especially since I just moved into a house with four friends who like to party Edited August 27, 2009 by Moefasaaa

[Tyler]

Day 6: Sorry for the late update. I was enjoying my day off of class and literally nothing I absolutely HAD TO do, but I did a lot of reading in the Qur'an while laying around waiting for the sun to go down. I got to thinking about how people find their faith. I wasn't raised in a church or any kind of religious setting, I was never forced to go to Mass as a kid, and never had to go to church on Chrsitmas eve. This was one thing that use to really bother me about growing up, I never had that community that I belonged to; however, I did find it in football games that my dad started taking me to when I was young. It was an amazing feeling being so young and going to an FSU game, I felt like I was a part of something bigger, something that when looked at as a whole, transcended itself into something bigger, much like the idea of a church in Christianity and a masjid in Islam. Am I saying that going to a football game is the same thing as going to a church? No. But they're a lot alike. It's funny how I can see the similarities in something I love so much, football, and something that in all reality, is fairly new to me -- my faith. So have you ever sat and wondered why you feel the way you do about faith? What moments impacted you as you grew up? Did you once have faith but lose it? Did you once shy away from it and find it? We're all unique and our stories are as complicated as they are unique. Have you ever really thought about it at all?

[Namenone]

Ramadan mubarak FSU and everyone else fasting! hope you say strong throughout.

Dat 2:
Scriptures that say we must kill X person for X reason aren't mean to be taken literally, as they were written a long time ago to match the timeframe.

This is similar to the idea of polygamy(more than 1 wife). During the time of our Prophet(PBUH) and even today there are more women then men. Polygamy allows women to find men to marry more easily instead of having to 'become public property'.

8. Restricting each and every man to have only one wife is not practical Even if every man got married to one woman, there would still be more than thirty million more females in USA who would not be able to get husbands (considering that America has twenty five million gays). There would be more than four million females in Great Britain 5 million females in Germany and nine million females in Russia alone who would not be able to find a husband.

Allah only allows more than 1 marriage if the husband is able to treat all wives in equal fairness.
"Marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one." [Al-Qur'an 4:3]

A lot of people have the misconception about this and put Islam in a bad light. Just thought id share it. Edited August 29, 2009 by namenone1

[Tyler]

Yeah, if you ask almost any Muslim about polygamy then they will laugh about it pretty much. Althogh there are a few exceptions to this as with anything else, I do know a muslim man who has two wives but they are treated equally and the first wife approves of the other. He only has sexual relations with one though and he adopted a child with the second wife. Many things that people take at face value in religions really aren't the same as they once were.

[Vladimir]

GL, I know how challenging fasting can be. I am Orthodox and have yet to attempt the long Pascha fast, but at various times and stages observe the other regular fasts (primarily the Wed/Fri fast). It's hard, particularly when you don't have a family doing the same fast (IE no mom cooking you tasty fast-appropriate foods). Though our fasts are quite different, ours aren't from ANY food but CERTAIN foods for an entire day/period. You think a day without meat is easy, but then you try doing it and all you can think about is how badly you want meat .

[Tyler]

I don't consider a meal a meal without some kind of meat

[Tyler]

Sorry for the lack of updates, such is grad school. This was an ambitious project to take on. Still fasting but no longer updating the journal :-\

[fcbayern]

When does the fasting end brotha?

[FiveSpeedF150]

Taking on the Ramadan fasting with a regular American schedule is a tough undertaking indeed.

In Bahrain, during Ramadan, businesses are open a much shorter time. Everything slows down a bit to allow people to not be so hard on themselves while fasting.

Ramadan Kareem

[Tyler]

Yeah, it's just work + grad school at the same time made it hard to keep doing this journal lol. I'm still fasting and hopefully I make it to the 20th for the Eid al Fitr celebration! Ramadan Kareem!