Day 2 - TIme Management is the key to survive Ramadan

One of the key aspects of having a successful Ramadan spiritually and physically is to manage your time well. Work, Family, Friends, Studies, Seher, Iftaar, Prayers, Quran, Dars, Fasting, Taraweeh, and the most important precious sleep. All of these things have to be managed on daily basis.

Photo by Ryan Hyde

Please make sure that you have a plan and order of priority for all of these. I recommend that you must try to steal sleep whenever you can. 30 minutes here, an hour there during the day, You will thank me for this. Any extra time that you may still have, try to spend it in something constructive. No Mafia Wars, No XBOX, PS3, Wii, and no soap operas for few days and you will realize that how much time you really have in your life despite all the commitments. 

Despite all the constraints, you will find yourself able to listen to others more keenly and yourself more critically and you will find that as the food consumption goes down (if it does) the brain activity goes up. This is remarkable but true. Give it a try. Gradually reduce your food consumption during the Seher, and Iftaar by few grams at a time and see how your body and brain responds. 

Regards,

MAC

Day 1 - Few things I want to share

Few things that I want to share:

within a couple of hours of launching the blog, I had hits from 11 different countries including, USA, UAE, Canada, Pakistan, France, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and Finland. It maybe a normal thing but I loved it as I want to share this wonderful spiritual experience with all Muslim and non-Muslim friends alike without boundaries of religion. Thank you very much to every visitor and keep sharing your comments!

Second thing is that by default, only registered users could post the comments and it was a hassle for many friends specially in the busy days of Ramadan. I have changed that and now there is no need to register for sharing your comments.

In addition, I found myself extremely productive, and much more calm and composed. Its still over 3 and half hours to go before Iftaar and I did not felt hungry so far. I feel my body and mind trying to detoxify itself. so far so good.

MAC

Day 0 - Tips about Seher and Iftaar diet

Disclaimer: This is not a medical or dietary advice. This is just my experience and experience of people around me in family and friends. If you have any medical condition, please consult your physician for advice.

Now that we are absolutely clear on the above, I hope that you will enjoy and benefit from the following:

photo by passionfusion

1. Don't change your food too much in Ramadan. It should be very similar to normal days and simple. Focus on self improvement and allow yourself and your family more time to focus on the self improvement during Ramadan rather than remaining busy in preparing elaborate meals.
2. Too much of refined sugar and refined flour and you will feel exhausted before the mid day. It is because it burns fast, causes body to produce excessive insulin and lowers the blood sugar level. Avoid it as much as you can.
3. If you are a smoker, you will have withdrawal symptoms. don't rush to smoke immediately after Iftaar. you have waited all day long, wait for few more minutes. let your body energize before you start smoking. If you can, this is the best time of year to quit. You prove yourself daily that you can! think about it.
4. Use whole wheat flour, fruits with skin, yogurt, and food that is high in fiber and your body will retain nutritional balance whole day.
5. Despite the temptation, stay away from fried and fatty foods (as much as you can). If you are like me and must have those pakoras, samosas, and kachooris, do so in moderation and balance it with fruits and yogurt.
6. Drink as much water as you can after Iftaar and before sleeping. This helps body normalize fluid levels. Eating juicy fruits is much better than fruit juices due to higher sugar intake in juices but they are the second best alternate.
7. Try to avoid carbonated drinks. They have truckloads of sugar and fructose. 

Feel free to share your experience in comments.

Signing Off for Day 0

MAC

Day 0 - The night before Ramadan and few friendly tips!

In addition to exchanging dozens of messages from my friends and family wishing and congratulating me and family on Ramadan, the phone has been ringing continuously. Some of the friends that I haven't met in a while called up. Some friends are in town and are making plans to meet up after Iftaar (breaking the fast).

There are invitations flowing around and there are already date conflicts as there are only 4 weekends. As a tip, in Ramadan, it is good to socialize and meet people in a relaxed atmosphere but also be conscious of the fact that this is one opportunity to do some soul searching and meditation along with prayers. 

I am not saying keep praying all the time, but just give yourself those moments when you can do an yearly analysis of what you wanted to do same time last year and how you wanted to be a better father, son, husband, and a Muslim and how you did it or if you are more like me, why you couldn't do it. 

Take it easy, relax your body and mind and try to leave the craziness behind and try to come out of this month as a more mature person. 

Drive Responsibly, if you are late for anything by few minutes, it is understandable, but do not jeopardize your life and lives of your loved ones and others whom you share the road with. Ramadan is about sharing and caring and not about madness and rudeness. 

Plan your day and stick to your plan as much as you can but get ready to be flexible. If you have planned to pray at home but your wife wants to go and meet some relatives or friends, its not end of the world. Talk to her and be flexible. the rights of people and the rights of God, both are important.

Be nice to your family. The best among you are those who are good with their families.

God bless you all and remember me when you pray.

Day 0 - My effort to see Ramadan Moon

Image by Marlon Malabanan

I stepped out of my home in Mirdif, Dubai in an effort to see Ramadan moon (crescent) immediately after Maghreb prayers with my sons Tahir & Tayyab. We kept looking at the spot where we expected the moon to appear for 15-20 minutes with no luck.

I decided to take help from technology, and whipped out my Android phone and downloaded the "Google Sky Map". it detected my location by default and pointed me to a certain point in the sky. I immediately tracked down the moon and disappointingly enough, it was below the horizon already. I already knew that it was too late but tried the "time travel" feature of the app and found out that moon will continue to go further down and there is no point in waiting. 

It is already announced that Ramadan will be tomorrow so this quest was only symbolic in nature. 

Isha Prayer today is 8:29 PM

Tomorrow's prayer timings are as following:

FAJR:  04:25

SHURUQ: 05:45

DUHR 12:30

ASR 15:56

MAGHRIB 19:08

ISHA 20:38

All timings are Dubai.

Off for the prayers.

Allah Hafiz

About this blog

Image by rana ossama 

There is a lot of information available on the web on Fasting and Ramadan and I am not just going to create another source of information by replicating all the information already available. I want it to be a discussion with myself and other friends who want to feel it with me. In next 30 days, I'll blog about various aspects of Ramadan as I experience them and a lot of information may find its way into this blog.

Thank you for experiencing Ramadan with me.
Regards,
MAC