Ramadan 2012 – Day 1

I woke up around 3:10am, had the food and drinks that I kept on my nightstand, then went back to sleep until around 8.

In some ways weekends are the toughest when fasting. During the week I’m at work so that can keep me distracted but on the weekend I have to come up with things that keep me busy yet keep me away from food and drink yet not be outside (way too hot out there and I can't drink water while fasting).

So after surfing the net at home I went to work to get a bit done there and got back home around 2:30, which meant it was time for a nap. I felt hungry around 12 but the feeling passed after a while. I slept for about an hour and a half and did some chores around the house to pass the time.

A Qatari friend of mine mentioned something that locals like to do just before iftar is called -- drive around the Corniche. He says loads of Qataris do that. So around five o'clock I got in the car and headed to the Corniche. Here's what I saw:

My friend wasn't kidding, parts of the Corniche were gridlocked! There were even cops at some of the roundabouts directing the traffic. I drove around for a while but since I was on my own doing laps of the Corniche wasn't all that exciting. That was okay because it was time to go home to prepare food.

I chopped up some vegetables and got a soup ready and laid out three dates with a glass of water (traditionally you should break the fast with three dates). I had the television on Qatar TV to catch the time when you could break the fast but it wasn't necessary as the nearby mosque started a prayer at the same time. I couldn't finish the soup because I got full pretty quickly, this kind of surprised me as I've never had this issue before -- maybe my stomach shrunk a little from the fasting or it was full with the glass of water I had.

So all in all it wasn't too bad. No caffeine withdrawl, no desparate hunger.

Anyway it's 9:30pm, time to hit the town.


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Hadiths of the Day:


What if you accidentally eat or drink something?

Abu Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: "He who eats and drinks forgetting that he is fasting, let him continue observing fasting, for it is Allah Who gave him to eat and drink." (Sahih Muslim, Book of Fasting)


I’ll leave you to look up "Junub" . . .


Aishah narrated that a man came to the Prophet asking for a fatwa. While she was listening from the behind the door, he said: "O Messenger of Allah, (the time) of prayer overtakes me while I am Junub; should I observe fast?" The Messenger of Allah said: "This too happens to me, and I still observe fast." . . . . (Sahih Muslim, Book of Fasting)