RAMADAN Join Us On this Journey

DesertRose

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Greetings everyone! Welcome and join us on our journey towards and during this month of fasting.
God willing, we will announce the beginning of the month when it is determined.
Dear Brethren,


It appears that our souls have arrived by the grace of God to meet Ramadan 1439, May/June 2018.(Nearly there, God willing!)
Alhamdullilah. (We thank Allah.) Perhaps you are aware of someone who is no longer with us and who did not make it on this particular journey. Let us pray for them and for others who are experiencing hardship and difficulty. Let us pray for peace. InshaAllah. God willing
Help me share information and parts about our collective experiences and thoughts during this month.

Let us persevere and live a month that will please our Creator, God willing: May this month help us gain better intentions, sound hearts and practices that please the Creator first and foremost. Ameen

I just noticed a brother passing out dates in the Madinah stream. I remembered how sisters at Mecca would give us fragrant coffee, and dates in between prayers. Some read their Quran or sit alone and in engage in remembering and praising God, others sit in a circle and listen to a prepared talk by a knowledgeable sister.


Lovely pics :--)

 
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Serveto

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I just noticed a brother passing out dates in the Madinah stream. I remembered how sisters at Mecca would give us fragrant coffee, and dates in between prayers. Some read their Quran or sit alone and in engage in remembering and praising God, others sit in a circle and listen to a prepared talk by a knowledgeable sister.
I don't mean to be impolitely inquisitive, but have you done the hajj (pilgrimage)? I remember being in Jeddah, which is as close to Makkah (Mecca) as I got, when the many hajjis were arriving, worldwide, by then uniformly dressed in their simple white garb, patricians and plebians alike, and the vibe was elevated, expectant, awe-inspiring. It was rather like the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury district of my youth, except it wasn't visibly fueled by drugs, and that is a notable exception.


Some years later, when I was in Quartzsite, Arizona, riding my bike, I discovered what was then a small monument to somebody affectionately called "Hi Jolly," a camel driver whom, in the late 1800's, as part of a Cavalry exercise in desert warfare, the USA had imported from Arabia. When I inspected the memorial more closely, I saw that the name had been Americanized: his real name was "Hajji Ali," that is to say, Ali who had performed hajj and thus gained the Muslim honorific, "Hajji." I thought that amusing, and, of course, an interesting -if little known- slice of Americana (not surprisingly mixed with what Eisenhower later called the "Military Industrial Complex").
 

Bacsi

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Greetings everyone! Welcome and join us on our journey towards and during this month of fasting.
God willing, we will announce the beginning of the month when it is determined.
Dear Brethren,


It appears that our souls have arrived by the grace of God to meet Ramadan 1439, May/June 2018.(Nearly there, God willing!)
Alhamdullilah. (We thank Allah.) Perhaps you are aware of someone who is no longer with us and who did not make it on this particular journey. Let us pray for them and for others who are experiencing hardship and difficulty. Let us pray for peace. InshaAllah. God willing
Help me share information and parts about our collective experiences and thoughts during this month.

Let us persevere and live a month that will please our Creator, God willing: May this month help us gain better intentions, sound hearts and practices that please the Creator first and foremost. Ameen

I just noticed a brother passing out dates in the Madinah stream. I remembered how sisters at Mecca would give us fragrant coffee, and dates in between prayers. Some read their Quran or sit alone and in engage in remembering and praising God, others sit in a circle and listen to a prepared talk by a knowledgeable sister.


Lovely pics :--)
No point in fasting. God doesn't care if you eat or not. He only cares about the purity of your heart.
 

Bacsi

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The true God wants to people to eat whenever they're hungry. That's what he created the hunger for. Religion lies to people.
 

Bacsi

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That's part of the plan when you fast, to purify your soul and turn a little more away from worldly things.
Eating has nothing to do with that process. You can stuff your belly to the brim and still purify your soul. Or you can fast for days on end and keep on being a nasty person. Eating and spirituality are unrelated.
 

DesertRose

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Is this thread just for the Brethren (and Sisteren!?) or can anyone join in . . . ?
Let us try to be inclusive and not cliquey on these forums, please.
Greetings Golden Age. This is absolutely not just for Muslims.
I was hoping that was apparent from my greetings.

I would like to give our non Muslims friends a glimpse into our lifestyles, hence, I post videos about how different cultures around the world host ramadan and videos or stories about how some individuals my experience this month. This is to communicate our shared experiences.

This journey is for all of us.

Btw, when will you be announcing the start of Ramadan?
I have been checking it appears that Ramadan is slated for Wednesday the 16th. We usually follow the global sigting method in our region.
Edit @DeathlyHallows and sister @grateful servant thanks for mentioning that already! Sis I was looking online for the 2 dates thank you for clarifying it.!
 
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Serveto

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Eating has nothing to do with that process. You can stuff your belly to the brim and still purify your soul. Or you can fast for days on end and keep on being a nasty person. Eating and spirituality are unrelated.
Don't you think it has something to do with intent? In my case, if and whenever I have voluntarily, not obligatorily, fasted, I derived spiritual benefit (said as a non-Muslim, by the way). As well, because I was spending time with my Muslim friends who were abstaining in things during Ramadan, I did too, and was able to quit smoking cigarettes. I think that has visible, demonstrably beneficial results to my lungs, regardless of amorphous "spiritualities." Welcome to the forums, by the way, you and I haven't spoken directly, so I am pleased to meet you.
 

Bacsi

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The Lord of humankind the Great Spirit of the Blue Sky, the Tengri of the Turks says that eating is a sacred act. Hunger was created by Umai, the Brown Earth, the Mother Creator of all living things. Therefore, eating is fulfilling the will of the true God.
 

Bacsi

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Don't you think it has something to do with intent? In my case, if and whenever I have voluntarily, not obligatorily, fasted, I derived spiritual benefit (said as a non-Muslim, by the way). As well, because I was spending time with my Muslim friends who were abstaining in things during Ramadan, I did too, and was able to quit smoking cigarettes. I think that has visible, demonstrably beneficial results to my lungs, regardless of amorphous "spiritualities." Welcome to the forums, by the way, you and I haven't spoken directly, so I am pleased to meet you.
It's good to to good stuff. It's just you don't have to stop eating for that. How about 11 months of the year? Free for all?
 

DesertRose

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I don't mean to be impolitely inquisitive, but have you done the hajj (pilgrimage)? I remember being in Jeddah, which is as close to Makkah (Mecca) as I got, when the many hajjis were arriving, worldwide, by then uniformly dressed in their simple white garb, patricians and plebians alike, and the vibe was elevated, expectant, awe-inspiring.
Hi Serv. welcome. I have been on the lesser pilgrinage (umrah) and unfortunately am waiting to go on the Hajj! The umrah was awe inspiring and deeply moving for myself and for some reason I was insistent on taking my mother with me. It was as if my soul was insistent on it. We had booked our tickets and my mum said she could go and arranged it with her place of work. We got back to the travel agent and he was unable to find her the same booking. I remember distinctly feeling sad whilst standing in the kitchen. Then I went on Saudia and booked the same airlines by myself for her. Being with her and the fam was such moving experience!Alhamdullilah we Thank the Creator.
Thank you for that American hajji story!
I hope that the Creator opens a way for me to go on Hajj.inshaAllah!
 
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Serveto

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It's good to to good stuff. It's just you don't have to stop eating for that. How about 11 months of the year? Free for all?
Well, I come from a background of absolute self-indulgence and hedonism, which is represented by the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where I lived (just up from there, in Ashbury Terraces) so I didn't mind, particularly, a brief foray into (manageable) asceticism, even if it were only for a lunar month, and even if I was only a sort of spiritual tourist, so to speak, enjoying Ramadan a few kilometers from Makkah. In fact, my lungs continue to thank me.
 

Bacsi

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Well, I come from a background of absolute self-indulgence and hedonism, which is represented by the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where I lived (just up from there, in Ashbury Terraces) so I didn't mind, particularly, a brief foray into (manageable) asceticism, even if it were only for a lunar month, and even if I was only a sort of spiritual tourist, so to speak, enjoying Ramadan a few kilometers from Makkah. In fact, my lungs continue to thank me.
If a person has sense, they don't need abstaining from food or whatever to make the right choices. Then it's up to them to think for themselves and act wisely. If they don't have such quality to start with, external asceticism won't help them. They might turn into thoughtless machines who follow other people's (or a book's) commands. It's 1000 more dangerous than hedonism.

BTW, in my faith eating brings you closer to God, not hunger. It's a very mistaken idea and what people get is not spirituality, but disaccord with the true God. It makes them more susceptible to lies.
 
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