Shawal and Eid'l Fitri Celebrations

Ramadan has left us. We are now in the month of Shawal. Muslims celebrate Eid’l Fitri at the start of Shawal marking the end of Ramadan with celebrations and merriment, indulging in foods of various kinds. Muslims visit one another, the young looking out for elders, children for parents, neighbors and friends seek each other for forgiveness and good wishes. Muslims have the whole month to do this.

On the eve of 1st Shawal, just after the late evening prayers, we and our neighbors got together and went from house to house to recite the ‘takbir’ glorifying the Almighty and being pleased that He had granted us the strength and ability to perform what were necessary for us to perform in seeking His pleasure during the past month. We divided ourselves into groups based on the streets we live in and in our street there were seventeen houses available for us to visit as others have gone away for the holiday either to spend it with parents and close family members or just to be away from home. My immediate neighbor was away in Mecca.

Family members from the seventeen houses visited each others houses. There were about thirty adults and similar number of children. Children were the happiest that night as they not only join in in the ‘takbir’ but were rewarded with ‘raya packets’ (containing money) at every house they visited. Each house would also prepare food to serve, and some prepared heavy stuff like lasagna, pizza, rice and beef ‘rendang’, apart from cookies and cakes. As we approached the last few houses some of the kids were clearly sleepy, from too much pizza and lasagna perhaps, but they fought it and tried to stay awake. My grandson Babang followed us through to the last house while Dedek lasted only until we reached our house. He could not stay awake to follow us to all the remaining houses. We started at about 8.30pm after late evening prayers, and we visited the last house in the street at about 1.00am. I found out the next day that one street in our community completed their ‘takbir’ visits at close to 3.00am. Most others completed at just before midnight.

In the morning, the first day of Shawal, we congregated in the mosque for the Eid’l Fitri prayers that was held at 8.30am., and which lasted for about one hour. The mosque was full. There was a funeral that morning too. One of the elders in our community had passed away the day before, the last day of Ramadan. Almost all stayed back to perform prayers for the deceased. After prayers we went straight home and together with our three children, spouses and grandchildren held a thanksgiving prayer and also prayers for our deceased elders and relatives, before partaking the food family members had prepared for the Eid’l Fitri occasion.

There was glutinous rice steamed in pouches made from coconut frond, beef and chicken to go with it. Shaffik had cooked chicken with herbs in bamboo. We also had ‘dendeng’ which is thinly sliced beef cooked dry in soy sauce and spices. There was also rice cooked in tomato and spices. Ram’s niece came and joined us in the celebration. The foods were rich!! After fasting for one month, all the glorious food we take now would only add back the bulges we shed during Ramadan!!

In the afternoon, we went in three cars to Johor Bahru to spend the next few days there with my mum and visit elders and close relatives. We also visited the graves of my late father, Ram’s father, mother, brothers and sisters and other relatives. We were in JB for three nights. The last night, i.e. on the third night of Shawal was when we had our annual family gathering, and this year was the 24th annual gathering. More on this later.

Ram’s sister Shidah, who spent the last two weeks of Ramadan and a few days of Shawal in Mecca came home on the day we departed JB. She arrived home just at about dusk. We had dinner with her and left JB for PJ at about 10pm arriving home in PJ at about 2.00am. It was a pleasant drive, the kids were sleeping and there were not much traffic on the road. It was different during the day hours I was told. The roads were jammed packed with cars and people took more than six hours to go from JB to KL. It was a blessing that Shidah arrived home late, thus we delayed our travel to the period when traffic was low. It was pleasant indeed…..

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya

Ramadan Departs

The holy month of Ramadan, a month of opportunities for devout Muslims, for enriching one's inner spiritual devotion to the Almighty, has left us. It is said that in Ramadan Satan will not be able to influence the 'children of Adam' to do physical, intellectual and spiritual harm (by going against the wishes and the will of the Almighty) to themselves, and if at all they do it is only out of their uncontrollable personal desires and not that of Satan’s design. Indeed the month of Ramadan is for devout Muslims to spend their waking hours, day or night, performing duties that are in total devotion to the Almighty, be they commitments for worldly living like daily jobs and work commitments or daily spiritual obligations like prayers, 'reading' the Holy Book, the Quran, helping others, the poor and destitute and similar deeds. All are done to please the Almighty and seek His 'redha'.

At the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, apart from the five daily obligatory prayers, additional prayers are held in the night, one set of which is performed immediately after the late evening or after-dusk prayers where the imam will read verses from the Quran during the prayers and complete the whole Quran in one month. Similarly in all the mosques, all over the world, these additional prayers are also held but not necessarily complete the whole Quran though. Devout Muslims not only do these prayers in the mosques but add more prayers at home. These prayers are non-obligatory but are expected from them.

It is said that there is one night where all the prayers are answered and the benefits to the individuals are said to be equivalent to prayers of a thousand months. No one knows when this night is. It is said that the night will be in the last ten nights of Ramadan, possibly in the odd nights, and some even predict which night of the last ten based upon the starting day of Ramadan. I feel that one should not just depend on predictions. Instead one should make the effort to devote the ten nights to the Almighty. After all its only ten nights out of the whole year!! It is easy said than done though as one’s own habit and personal desires sometimes dictate one’s ability to concentrate in that last ten nights of Ramadan.

In the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, more prayers are held on the last ten nights of Ramadan, starting at midnight and usually ending at just before three in the morning. The mosques will reverberate with the sound of the Imam in prayers. This inevitably will spur those present to follow the Imam in the prayers and by my experience, the two mosques will be full of people following the prayers. On the nights of 27th especially and also 29th the mosque will be so full of people that every nook and corner of the two mosques will be occupied. People even have to pray on steps of stairways due to a lack of available space in the mosques. Not all other mosques will hold these extra prayers for the last ten nights but for those that do their starting times varies. In our community mosque near my house we start these prayers at about four in the morning. Other mosques have different times to hold the prayers, but what is expected is for the individuals to perform them on their own at home, as much as possible. Thus Ramadan is a month where Muslims all over are exhorted to devote their time and energy in supplication to the Almighty.

Ramadan has now passed us by. Will we have the opportunity to meet the next Ramadan? That will be the wish of all Muslims, and only with the will of the Almighty can we hope to meet it again. One will just have to pray for His grace to grant that opportunity. We live for the moment, prepare for the next and the future while seeking His pleasure in granting all our wishes and prayers…………… Amin Ya Rabbul Alamin……..

Note: For those interested in the Quran, its proper recitation and translation visit this site: http://www.quranexplorer.com/

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya

Moving Around in Cairo and Onwards to Medina / Mecca to Perform Umrah

The day after we returned from Sainai/St Catherine/Jabel Musa, we grouped together after breakfast to visit more tombs and other historical sites in and around Cairo. Amongst the tombs and mosques we visited were that of Imam Shafiee in which we were also shown the footstep (imprint) of Prophet Mohammad, Imam Jalaluddin as-Sayuti, the author of well known books on hadith and the interpretation of the quran, Imam ibn Atoillah as-Sakandari, Saiyidina Hussein Ali the grandson of the Prophet, Saiyidah Nafisah Imam Hassan al-Anwar, a well known religious lady who continued to fast for 30 years consecutively, and went for haj 30 times and known to have walked from Mecca to Medina every time, and that was in the 10th century!! We also visited Al-Azhar mosque and the tomb of a warrior within, amongst many others.

There was a late afternoon free time to visit the local bazaar, khan khalili but Ram decided to forego shopping at the bazaar as she was just too tired. Phew!…. you don’t know how relieved I was when she decided not to visit the bazaar. Those who went came back with loads of stuff, adding on to their luggage. Some managed to coax a few people in our group who visits Egypt only and returned home without going for the umrah, to take home their shoppings. With that they did not have to lug all their shopping stuff to Medina and Mecca, but then they loaded those people who were returning home!!

The roads in Egypt do not seem to have improved when compared to the time I visited in 1984. They have built new highways and by-ways but the quality of the roads are still wanting. Perhaps the volume of traffic being so huge, making control chaotic, left the roads surfaces in that condition. 1984, 2006, the traffic condition remained the same. Honking of their car horns seems to be part of their driving ritual. There was so much honking that after a while you are immune to the sound!! And people, people everywhere. The places we visited, just any of them, were just crowded with people doing their own thing or on their own way somewhere.

This time though I noticed clear differentiation between the old Cairo and the new Cairo by the different design of buildings and structures, with the old really looking very old. However, the building may look old on the outside but the inside are usually cozily done up. The hotel we stayed in was a very old hotel of French design, with clip-locked and cobblestone road frontage, and cast iron roadside pillars and chains, but the rooms are comfortably done up and fixtures modern. No grouses there. One interesting fixture though was the vintage elevator, the one with exposed sides where you can see the walls rushing by as you go up or down in the elevator. I think the elevators were specially preserved by the hotel. It must be costly to maintain them.

Our flight out of Cairo was rescheduled to 1.00 am 22nd. September but due to a mix up we were not accommodated on that flight but was rescheduled to the early morning flight. We left Cairo at about 8.00am heading for Jeddah. From Jeddah we were taken by bus to Medina arriving in Medina at just after the dusk prayers. We found out that Ramadhan was to start the next day, a day earlier than we anticipated. But that was no big deal. In fact we were looking forward to it. A day earlier was just great. We spent four nights in Medina and then proceeded to Mecca where we spent seven nights.

The weather was hot, 42 Celsius at midday. It was not too bad in Medina as the new extension of the holy mosque was fully air-conditioned, pleasant for us. We only have to endure the heat when going and coming from the mosque. Our hotel was just 5 minutes walk to the mosque. But in Mecca it was different. There was only one section of the mosque that had air-conditioning while 80% of it without. There were wall and ceiling fans everywhere though and at full swing all the time. So there was air flow but hot air circulating!! We just gave full concentration to our prayers and before long we forget about the heat.

It is normal for umrah tour packages to include visits to interesting historical sites in Mecca and Medina. We went for such visits. This time however our guru, through his contacts with locals gurus like him, managed to arrange additional visits around the great mosques and their vicinity, to identify sites of importance in the history of Islam like the original Bani Hashim village, the house where Prophet Mohamad was born, the places where the Prophet received messages from Angel Gibrail, the site where the Prophet met and negotiated with Jins who later became Muslims in droves, the site where a dates fruit tree paid homage to the Prophet, and many more. We also managed to visit a museum of the Holy Kaabah, whose entry is quite restricted requiring pre-arranged appointments and other formalities. These additional visits made our trip there really worthwhile. The only regret I have is I did not take enough pictures. I was so engrossed with the historical facts that I forget to record them for posterity!! I will just have to put them in words somewhere then.

Before leaving Mecca, and as we usually practiced whenever we were there, we made our final prayers in the holy mosque and then prayed in front of the Kaaba in full supplication to Him with the hope that He will grant us the opportunity to return to this Holy site in the near future. May Allah be pleased, Amin Ya Rabbul Al Amin…….

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya

Picture # 1 - Cairo

 
In-front of Hotel. On the left is my Guru, Sh. Hafiz Selamat 

Picture # 2

 
The Tomb of Imam Shafiee 

Picture # 3 - Cairo

 
Family Tree of Imam Shafiee - linking to the Prophet 

Picture # 4 - Cairo

 
Foot Imprint of the Prophet in Imam Shafiee's Mosque