Friday, June 27, 2014

2014 Ramadan Preparation


With all the issues about my recent car accident I forgot to mention that Ramadan is almost here! It could even start tonight. And like other years I too will fast in order to experience Ramadan much like the Muslims here do.

Even though I haven't been blogging about it I have been getting ready. Over the last couple of weeks I've been slowly weaning myself off the caffeine: reducing the number of cups of coffee or making some of them decaf, then switching to tea, then reducing the amount of tea. If you like drinking coffee then weaning yourself off the caffeine is crucial before you start fasting otherwise you start Ramadan off with severe caffeine withdrawal. I haven't had any caffeinated tea or coffee for the last couple of days so it won't be a problem to not have any coffee during the day (but I will be having a bit of coffee in the evenings, see below).

I've also got most of my Ramadan food stocked:

Dates




Olives, nuts, and Arabic coffee (it contains the spice cardamom)




And some Ramadan-related reading material. I'll be reading the Al-Muslim Hadiths this month, and a friend of mine is due to return from vacation shortly and he'll be bringing me a couple of other books to read on Islamic History.



And as always I'll be posting frequently during the month with experiences and other general things about Ramadan.

2 comments:

Maryam said...

Oh I do wish you would take the jump and become a Muslim! It seems to me you already are, but just don't know it yet.

Glen McKay said...

:) You're not the first to say that, many of my Muslim friends say the same thing.