So how was the first Ramadan

Al Salam Alikoum Wa Rahmatou Allah Wa Barakatou dear sisters and brother.

Just wanted to share with you an article that was published by a new muslim about her first Ramadan that I thought might be interesting to you.

[HOW WAS THEIR FIRST RAMADAN?]
So this is how Ramadan is in the Muslim world
The Turks say, “When you look for a house, look at the neighbors first.” This is very true. I remember my lovely neighbors who were always ready with help, friendship, and their delicious dishes.


God says in the Quran, “Keep yourself with those who are devout in good deeds and worship” (Chapter of the Cave). This was what God planned for me when I first arrived in Turkey.
I had been what I call a “revolving door Muslim” for some years before I came to İstanbul. I would go through moments when I felt religious, fasting in Ramadan and praying, but then there were times when I felt that there was no use. When I first became a Muslim, there was so little information on what to do and many of those around me were as clueless as I was or they found following the rules of Islam inconvenient for the life that they were living in the United States, a country that at the time made few, if any, concessions for Muslims.

It’s funny how so many often use Turkey as an example of where Islam went wrong. Yet while others usually migrate to places like Egypt, Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states, I made a niyet, an intention, in my heart that I would give my Islam a final kick-start in Turkey. I was in Sultanahmet on a one-week tour when I heard the final call to return to God. I had been with the Oprah crowd, which says that if you do x, y, and z, God will grant you anything you desire -- He was just waiting for your action so he could react (May God protect me from such misguidance, now and forever). Anyway, I was just walking down the street and then, I heard it, “Allahu Ekber, Allahu Ekber, La illahe illallah” hit me like a rock, God is the Greatest, there is no other God besides God! From that moment on, I decided I would seek my fortune in the next world.

After a series of personal mishaps in the US, I decided that enough was enough. I started to make moves to see what I could do in Turkey. I found a newspaper on the plane on my way to İstanbul that had an ad for an institute that was looking for an English teacher. I called them and made an appointment. God is the best of planners. I met with the director of the institute, but still had other interviews. In the end, I chose Dilfem, an English institute. Even though I did not know anything about them, I found them warm and family-like. It was there, amongst those who I would later find striving in the way of Islam, that I had my first Ramadan.

Ramadan was a big event at the institute. On the first day, there was a big dinner to which staff and students’ families were invited. I especially remember the boxes of biscuits that said Ramazan Mubarek on them. It was lovely. In the US Ramadan is often a solitary event. Not so here! In the middle of the night I heard a drum -- ddarabin, ddarrabin, ddarrabin -- looked outside and saw a guy with a duff drum. Praise be to God!

The drummer rang my bell to ask for money for his service and I gladly gave him some. He was an alarm clock with no snooze button. You were guaranteed to wake up. I looked out my window and saw that others were getting ready for sahur, too. I was in the club, the ummah, of those who follow the traditions of Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him.

We didn’t know what to eat. We started out with all of the wrong things: salty pastırma, toast, scrambled eggs and a date milkshake. I guess the pastırma was the worst thing one could eat because it is very salty, but we loved it. I would get up and make the food while Ahmed, my son, would join me later. Sometimes we had enough time to have a leisurely meal and other times there were just a few minutes to eat some bread and drink the date milkshake.

Then it was off to school and work. At work the staff ate iftar together every evening. So this is how Ramadan is in the Muslim world. Wow! Afterwards we would pray together and then make the journey home to prepare for the night prayer and terawih. I remember that despite my years of claiming to be a Muslim, this was the beginning of my real Islamic education. In Turkey, where practicing Islam seems so dangerous sometimes, was where my son Ahmed said, “I love it here, I feel proud to be a Muslim.” My first Ramadan in İstanbul was really the first Ramadan in which I felt like a Muslim.

As for colleagues at Dilfem, despite it being almost 10 years ago and having since moved away, we still chat now and then. They are brothers and sisters in Islam who helped me become a better Muslim. Praise be to God!

10.10.2007

MARYAM ISMAIL NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

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