I’ve never done any fasting in my entire life, so here’s how my first experience goes…
Living in the UAE which is a Muslim country is honestly quite enlightening. I love how diverse it is, how different nationalities and religions all goes together respecting each other. I’m happy to say that I feel blessed being in this city and learning so much stuff that I know I won’t really learn if I’m surrounded with people of the same culture and beliefs that I grew up with. I can pretty much say that I was so open in learning new things and that’s one of the many reasons why I decided to do fasting for the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Here’s a fact about me, I always indulge myself with whatever it is that I want especially with food. So the idea of not eating and drinking anything during daylight is honestly difficult. And I wasn’t even sure if I can really do it. I don’t have vices (another fact about me), I don’t smoke and I don’t drink coffee in order to really process the whole day so I guess I’ll be fine. To be honest the first week was really hard for me but along the way it gets easier.
I’ve learned self-control and discipline. It has made me realize that I am a lot stronger than I thought I was. I’ve learned sympathy as well, in a way that I have come to feel how poor people feels and how fortunate I am to have a proper meal everyday and that I should be thankful for all the blessings that are given to me. Also, how supportive the community is when I did a volunteer work for food distributions across Dubai and attended few Iftar gatherings. Ramadan has been about detoxing and cleansing spiritually.
I have much bigger respect for the Muslims for their discipline and strong principles. If there’s any most important thing that I’ve learned it is that you don’t throw rocks on things you don’t know deeply or have a proper understanding of. I avoid talking about religion all the time as I know it is one the unending conversation, no one wins no one lose. But here I am writing something about it. I guess I want people to kill the stigma that they have for Muslims (and for every religion) and the Islamophobia going on everywhere. There are so much things rather than just what you see on the media. If we truly open our mind and try to learn things we will see the real them.
Eid Mubarak!
Below are the links for interesting talks and videos about Islam;
- What does the Quran really say about a Muslim woman's hijab? | Samina Ali
- The Muslims You Cannot See | Sahar Habib Ghazi
- The Muslim on the airplane | Amal Kassir
- The Truth About Ramadan | Khalid Al Ameri
- She Taught Me How To Pray | Khalid Al Ameri
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