Welcome Ramadhan!

Ramadhan is here again.


I distinctly remember many moons ago, circa 1977 where I first observed a full day of fasting. Boy was it tiring. Once back home from school I practically collapsed and slept the whole length of whatever remains of the day.

Fast forward 32 years later. Here we are in 2009. Fasting during Ramadhan have long never been an issue to me anymore. In the recent years when time permits and based on my mom's prodding, I started to carry out night time prayers. The ritual is always the same. Started with 2 raka'ats of sunat prayers, followed by 2 raka'ats of sunat taubah and followed by 2 raka'ats of sunat tahajjud and ending with 4 raka'ats of sunat hajat. It will take about slightly more than an hour to complete.

Now the sunat hajat prayers are a bit different from what one normally practices. It is carried out in 4 raka'ats with 2 salams. The first raka'at, after the ummul kitab, i recited suratul al-ikhlas for 10 times. In the second raka'at, suratul al-ikhlas is recited for 20 times. In the third, suratul al-ikhlas is recited for 30 times and the fourth raka'at it is recited for 40 times. This brings a total of suratul al-ikhlas recitation of 100 times. At the end of the 4th raka'at typically the legs will be a bit wobbly as the sense of sleepiness overwhelms you.

This year, as I've now in a different ‘time zone’, (i.e. my sleeping time has been about 3-4 in the morning for the past three weeks) it should be much easier. The issue to that are the tahajjud prayers, which requires sleeping first.

Let's see how it progresses.

The challenge is, to be able to balance the work, rest, sleep and allocate time to perform the holy rituals without straining yourself too much.


What about you?




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