A Conversation with Little Sarah

"What is Ramzaadaan?" asked little Sarah. "Do you mean 'Ramadhaan'?" I responded, curiously. She nodded her head. Little Sarah wanted to know about the month of Ramadhaan for the Muslims. The 'fasting' month, as it is known and this was my reply:

Just as you may know the months of the year to be January, February and March- we, as Muslims, have our own calender with our own months. Ramadhaan is one of our months and so is Shabaan. Muharram is our first month of the year. Our January.

You see, Little Sarah, as you have the Bible, we as Muslims, have the Quraan. Ramadhaan is the month that our Quran was sent from God to our Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) for us. It is because of this that we take one month out of our year to give thanks to God. We turn to God. We pray to God. We pray daily, it is just that in this one month, we increase our prayers to thank God for all that we have. What we also do is 'fast'.

Little Sarah gave me a confused look as she asked, "What is so fast?"

I chuckled and continued to tell her what fasting was all about:

From the time the sun rises until it sets, we do not eat and we do not drink. At night, we can eat and drink but not during the day. We wake up before the dawn and eat and then we do not eat again until the sun goes down.

We endure hunger as it helps us feel what those who don't have much feel everyday. We go through thirst and we thank God for all that he has given us- and when we are hungry, we remember God and we try not to do anything sinful or bad. We stay away from smoking, we stay away from fighting and we stay away from causing pain to other people.

It is a lesson we learn that some people aren't fortunate enough to have three meals a day. A lesson that teaches us that it isn't difficult to do good if we're willing to put aside bad actions. A lesson that makes us, in more ways than one, better humans.

"What else do you do in Ramadhaan?" Sarah asked.

In this month of Ramadhaan we read the Quraan- our Bible and try to see what is lacking in our lives. We try to add this to our lives and hope that we please God by doing so.

Through Ramadhaan and fasting, we learn patience, we turn to God and we realise that there is more to life than eating and drinking. We learn about prayer and how to treat our fellow brothers and sisters and also how to be good to everyone on a whole.

Ramadhaan is the one month in the year that helps us do great things and make up for the mistakes that we made in the other months of the year.

Ramadhaan is our fasting month, a month that makes us better people, faster.

When I was done, Little Sarah looked at me and smiled. Sweetly, she said, "Thank you," and I knew that she understood what the 'Fasting Month' was all about.

Contributed by, M. Ismail