Meraviglioso

As Ramadan begins tomorrow I hope you will take solace in your faith and traditions. As you pray and fast I hope that not only will your sobriety remain at the forefront of your prayers and that when you arrive to Eid that this virus will be declining wherever you are and you will be able to celebrate this special day with family and friends as you have in the past. Inshallah.

I spoke to one young man in Saudi Arabia the other day. He was quite sad that he would not be able to go to the medina and the mosque to pray with his family and friends. I am not particularly religious but suggested to him to view this as a challenge from Allah to become deeper and more devoted in his faith. He felt comforted by this idea, so I share it here in case it helps anyone else.

Witsyrm

Great reminder. I am a high school teacher, and we have a large Muslim population, and one of our kiddos’ great joys was celebrating and talking and communing at school with their Muslim and nonMuslim friends During Ramadan and Eid . Our school usually sets a little time aside in the announcements to help educate the school about Ramadan. Thank you for your thoughtful reminder.

Hawkeye13

Ramadan Mubarak

lessgravity

How's it going Mera?

Meraviglioso

Not bad, thanks. Hanging in there, following the rules..... I've got a pretty good home exercise routine going and that has been helpful though I miss my walks.
I am enjoying my work online, especially in this moment learning more about the beautiful and meaningful month of Ramadan from many of my students. I know my work will be cut down in the next month as most of my regulars who observe this time have told me they will be taking the month off from lessons. That's ok though, I'm thankful to have what little work I do.
And you? I hope you are staying safe, what a scary time it is for you there in NYC.

Meraviglioso

Oh that's lovely about your student, and what a great thing your school does to include some announcements with information.

I am sure you don't hear it enough but with all the home-schooling going on now let me say it loud and clear- THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK!!!!

lessgravity

<div><br></div><div>Sounds good, glad to hear you are doing well Mera.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm ok.&nbsp; Tough month. Looking forward to clearer skies ahead.</div>

courage2

Thank you for this thoughtful post, M. Stay well everyone.

Meraviglioso

Eid Mubarak! Unfortunately many countries will not be able to celebrate in the traditional way today, but I hope any of you out there reading for whom this is a meaningful holiday will enjoy a special day with your in-home family and are able to connect with those further away by phone or video chat.

Wastinglife

My roommate at university for a few years was Muslim. Of course, not exactly following the traditional ban on alcohol. When his family came to visit, we made a mad dash to hide all the booze and empty bottles in my closet.

I remember this clearly because his parents walked in to our place and said "Smells like cigarettes and alcohol". His family drove down because they were going to mosque, breaking the Eid fasting etc. We were not expecting them to arrive so early because they lived a 2 hour plus drive away. So they would have left at 3am to show up at 5am.


I told him to blame it on me. My parents are from the UK/Ireland so made sense. They invited me out to break the Ramadan fast. Roommate and I were falling asleep on the drive back to our campus. We hadn't slept yet.


I relate this story because a Muslim can also be an alcoholic. It's not culturally acceptable, but it happens. Roommate was born and raised in Canada. Family from Kenya/India. They didn't believe our story, but thought it was funny. Didn't want anymore details!


I still love Indian cuisine to this day!