Ramadan 2012 Has Begun!

Here I thought it would be called tomorrow night but as I was sitting with a friend at a café having mocktails (I'm off the caffeine, remember) when he got a message on his Blackberry and said, “Ramadan has been called!”

Apparently Ramadan has been called in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait as well.

So after we finished at the café it was off to a grocery store for supplies. I picked up some cheese and laban for my pre-dawn meal, I have the rest of the food so I'm set.

My friend is going to have a cranky weekend; he is not off the caffeine and he smokes (which you can’t do during the day either) so tomorrow he's going to be fasting, going through caffeine withdrawal, and nicotine withdrawal. Yow.

According to my Ramadan prayer guide fasting starts tomorrow at 3:28am and finishes at 6:27pm. 15 hours of fasting!

Let's see how it goes this year. Ramadan Kareem everyone!


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(The first hadith I want to share is small so I'll give you two hadiths)


On women in mosques:

Zainab Ath-Thaqafiyah narrated: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said to us: “When one of you comes to the mosque, let her not wear perfume.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of As-Salat)


On eating garlic:

Ibn ‘Umar narrated that during the battle of Khaibar the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "He who eats from this plant (i.e., garlic), let him not go to mosques.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of As-Salat)

[There's actually three different hadiths about eating onions and garlic and not going to mosques. It appears that smelling of onions and garlic is a no-no.]