This past weekend marked the end of Ramadan with the celebration of Eid - the festival of breaking the fast. Typically, the day is celebrated with community prayer, giving to those in need, visiting with friends and family, and eating sweets. At the start of Ramadan, we asked some of our teens to talk about their experience with practicing Ramadan during Covid-19 (check out our last blog post for those thoughts). Now that Ramadan is over, we followed up with them to hear their reflections about this important Muslim holiday.
Salman
Ramadan was a great month for me. Ramadan was about just trying to challenge yourself to fast for 30 days. Some things I learned is that people can improve their fasting if you really want to because last year I used to struggle fasting, but this year it was so easy that the month is almost done. It was great time with family.
Rifat
Ramadan was lonely this year. Just me and my family. But I got the chance to recite the whole Quran this month because of the free time. It’s a spiritual achievement for me. One common thing I like about Ramadan is that all our family members or people in the house come together at the table during sunset to break the fast. This is a gem for me as we don’t sit and eat at the same time usually in ordinary days. Instead of having a big prayer lead by an imam in the mosque, I lead the Eid prayer and also invited my neighbors upstairs. This was challenging and shocking at the same time, but I did it. On Eid I just went out on a long drive with my friend beside the sea. It was peaceful and wholesome.
Salman
Ramadan was a great month for me. Ramadan was about just trying to challenge yourself to fast for 30 days. Some things I learned is that people can improve their fasting if you really want to because last year I used to struggle fasting, but this year it was so easy that the month is almost done. It was great time with family.
Rifat
Nina
I love the fact that I’m drawn to my god more and I feel so spiritual and my body just feel calming like I don’t even think about food and also when we fast we have restrictions on thing we can and can’t do, so like listening to music, being on social media - it’s not good because it distracts people and draws them to evil. Listening to Quran and praying five times a day is one of the best thing to do in the month of Ramadan. Giving to the poor is a big factor because you get more goodness. If I’m fortunate enough in the future I would love to give to people who need it the most.
Fatuma
Honestly Ramadan this year was really completely different. We can’t just simply go to the mosque whenever we feel like it sadly. It just feels so weird it doesn’t feel like a great Ramadan this year even though it went by pretty quick and I’m kinda glad that we can actually go to Eid prayer because that’s what we were worried about wondering if we were going to even have a Eid prayer which is pretty important, but other than that it was really weird due to the quarantine. Hopefully next year it’s better.
Ramadan this year was actually great, I got to spend more time with my family and learn new recipes with my mom! I’ve learned that I should appreciate my family more because I really wouldn’t have been able to get through this tough time without their support. One takeaway is to not take the closeness for granted, like I can’t wait to go pray as a whole, once the masjid opens back up.
Comments