Ramadan Fever

Abu Sumaiya

The heat is on!

Once a year a dramatic change occurs in the Muslim community. Once a year Icky baby and the Sam' becomes Iqbal and Sameera. Off come the baggy jeans, the Nike 180's and the Raiders cap. On come the yellow Shalwar Kameez (clothes most Pakistanis wear), the brylcreamed hairstyle which glues on that terribly uncool Towpee (cap) and in comes the miswak in the top pocket, making you look like something like "Karachi cops".

It's during this HOLY month of Ramadan that we ditch the daytime raves and the frequent visit to the library (and we don't mean for the reference section) and begin to act it out. Icky baby becomes temporarily religious.

It's a sort of spooky feeling. The Mosques are full and your feel good. Good cos' you've done your bit for the year. One by one you scratch the days from your Ramadan timetable that your dad brought back from the Mosque-and then-thank crunchie it's Eid.

Eid Mubarak!

The Mosques again becomes museums for the old and for those deprived "ACHA BACHA" - a good baby. The crease-free shalwar kameez comes off and comes the baggy jeans, whilst the libraries reopen for "business as usual". Just 11 more months of "freedom" to go before the smelly breath season come back with vengeance.

Year after year it goes on, almost as a ritual. You know it's rough. Yet Allah (swt) is Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem as we are told by our parents (who probably also have gone through this). And anyway religion is for the old men in the mosques - with smelly breaths, and beards that sweep the floor everytime they walk from one end of the mosque to the other.

Religion is for those "fundies"(fundamentalists) at school/college, the "weirdoes" who only talk to the opposite sex about the benefits of the Khilafah ruling system or the fallacies of Western ideology such as Capitalism and Marxist Philosophy. (i.e. try saying that in one breath!).

The Game

So you go around playing this game. It's like an endless spiral. You think you're a rebel or tough - yet you're just one of the pack - a zombie, conforming to master-plan, when you turn 40 you grow your beard and take your seat in front row of the mosque, invest in a miswak, pack your bags for Hajj, and then everything is gonna be safe! - well no! It doesn't quite work like that. The million dollar question is will you ever turn 40?

Game Over

Suppose you die. Just suppose you snuff it before you turn 40? What then? It could severely damage that master-plan of yours. Alright, the chances may look slim yet the stakes are high. Nobody knows when he or she is going to die. Just suppose you're locked up in a room and there's no way out. Just suppose there's a time bomb - ticket away in this room. Now if this bomb has "6 days" on it you would probably turn "fundy" and spend all six days reading namaz (salah). Just suppose the bomb had a "?" on it? What then? That's exactly how life is!!! A ticking bomb with a "?" on it, you never know when it's gonna blow-up.

Wherever you are, death will find you. Even if you are in tower built up strong and high!" (Translation of the meaning of the Qu'ran) 

30 days or a lifetime?

And anyway, even if you do go along with this "dodgy" game, don't you think your Creator will know your intention? Many people have sussed out Islam as a blind faith or and emotional/spiritual/spooky belief which leaves you a contemplating rationally about the meanings of life.

Where did you come from? Why are we here? Or the question that puts a dampner on all raves, "what's going to happen to us when we die?" Islam asks us to answer these vital questions and come to a conclusion, the correct one.

Islam doesn't rely on the dodgy culture we are brought up with either from our parents or from the Molvi-Saab (imam). Islam is far from being a "religion" as it is often coined in the media. Islam is a complete system of life - with solutions to all our problems be it for Muslims or non-Muslims.

Check out Islam for yourself and free yourself from this shallow zombie-like culture. Before your credits run out! Word out!

Remember there is no Life or Dignity without Islam.

"O you who believe answer the call of Allah(swt) and His Messenger to that which gives you Life." (8:24)