Desert Son: Tales of Le_Muslim_MAN

Ramadan Reminiscing

Okay, so obviously with Ramadan coming, that's pretty much going to be a topic everywhere now, and since I promised to start posting more in this book, I figured I'd join in on that. I'm hoping to make this last, to kind of stretch it a little bit, but obviously there's no way I can make it last the entire month, and here I am starting early anyways so...yeah. Anyways, I'm just hoping to make a few posts where I kind of look back on some Ramadan memories and the way things were for me as a child, a lot of the habits and such. I almost called this post "Ramadan Rituals," but well, that would've totally given off the wrong idea.

So, I'm going to fight my urge to just spill into everything all at once -even though all the thoughts are swimming through my mind right now- and stick to one thing. Now, unless you're like 12 years old or a revert who didn't grow up with Islam, I think we can all agree that we've probably reached the point where we can look back and realize that Ramadan and Eid feel a little different nowadays than they did in our childhood. For whatever reason, it could be better, it could be not as joyous, it could be that you've gained a stronger imaan and so you take more spiritual benefit out of it as opposed to just habitual rituals or cultural traditions that come with wherever you're from, you could be far away from home and the traditions you're used to, etc etc.

For me, it's the atmosphere and the elders (I almost said adults before the horrifying realization hit me that many of my generation in my family are now included in "the adults") that have changed. I'm not too sure how to explain it, it's not necessarily the attitude but like... okay maybe it is. People don't put out the same excitement anymore or they show another side of them that just....okay let me refrain from going into personal stuff lol oops.

But to begin (four paragraphs in and I'm barely beginning :p), Ramadan has had a different reception throughout my family's generations. My dad is a revert so it never existed in his childhood lol, so let's skip that. I'm going to be sticking to my maternal family. So, my maternal grandmother (also a revert) was the first Muslim of our family, and with her husband (my mom's stepfather- also a revert XD) she lived in the desert. So, unfortunately they had limited access to acquiring Islamic knowledge, but they knew the basics and over time sought more.

When they were raising my mother and aunts, they unfortunately used the teaching method of "DO, DO, DO," but without explaining why. So you had two adults, eagerly awaiting Ramadan so they could fast and spend the day reading Quran and pray Taraweeh etc, and then there were their daughters who were confused as heck as to why these loony adults are happy about being hungry all day and having bad breath. (Take note future parents, it's always important to explain the why and benefits and goods of everything in Islam instead of just teaching the rules- people will either be confused about it or dislike it or disobey because they don't understand it).

So for my mom and aunts growing up, they didn't necessarily hate Ramadan, thankfully my grandmother did manage to teach them that it's a special month -they just didn't know why. However, they weren't super excited to see it coming either. Standing for hours upon hours in the night to pray Taraweeh behind their stepdad who's recitation was just...just... no. It was just one big no. And I've heard the funny stories of my middle aunt falling asleep in sujood sometimes after having stood for so long, or of my mom and aunts wishing their mom would break her fast and eat because she was grouchily yelling at them and her breath was horrendous lol.

Moving on though, my oldest brother is the oldest of the grandchildren, which I will break into two segments because of the vast difference in our time periods, plus it wouldn't make sense to consider us all as one generation when the oldest is practically 30 and the youngest grandchild is about to be born in like two days maybe. Whoa, that sentence structure. Glad this isn't a story. Anyways, so for my generation, we were eager for Ramadan. My brothers and I started fasting earlier than most others kids we knew. It wasn't out of force- trust me, I had to SNEAK and fast sometimes because my parents said I was too young but I wanted to.