Sunday, October 26, 2003

Tomorrow would be the first day of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar and Moslem all over the world would start fasting. Fasting is one of the five Pillars of Islam. Since in Islam the day start not from morning but in the evening after the magrib prayer, tonight all Moslem would congregate at their respective mosque to do the tarawih prayer, which start after the Isyak prayer, the second prayer for a Moslem everyday. Most people misunderstood the prayer time and think that the morning prayer [suboh] prayer is the first prayer of the day, it is not for the Moslem day start just after the evening prayer [magrib]. So tonight thousand and thousand of Moslem would get to the mosque to pray together and this prayer session would continue till the evening of the a day before the last day of the fasting month, which end with the festival of Aidil Fitri. Once a westerner friend ask me, can you really abstained from eating and drinking all days and would not felt hungry. My answer to this good friend of mine is that Fasting in Islam is actually a state of the mind, one eat like any other people except that during this month, Moslem only eat and drink between sunset and sunrise, so in actual fact there is no such thing as not eating at all, the only difference is that the time is changed, instead of eating during the days, Moslem now eat at night and this actually give the stomach and its organs to rest during the days once a year, and scientifically this have been proven to be good and healthy, in a way it is like changing the work schedules and break the monotony, as we all know breaking the monotony is good for our whole system, it makes us more alert and really look for the changes. As I have stated that fasting is actually the states of the mind, once your mind is set to accept that fasting is spiritual and good for you, then fasting for the whole month of Ramadan would just be second nature to you, it is just easy and in a way it is exciting and one would really begins to appreciate what eating is all about and eager to wait for the time of the breaking of fast everyday after the evening prayer. My advise to all those great people of what ever race or religion, try fasting and once your mind is set to accept the goodness of fasting, then it would be just easy to fast, try it, first for half a day may be and then graduated to a full day, and I am sure you would appreciate fasting from time to time and in the process makes your body more healthy....surely you would come out better after the fasting month...loose a little weight perhaps which is in a way is good for our health....so happy fasting my friends and have a great day.

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