Not Entirely At Ease

28 Ramadhan, 1442

I tend to think of the final days of the fasting month as ones involving a certain degree of ease. The finishing line is in sight and the body has adjusted to the challenge of not eating or drinking from dawn to dusk.

But today was a welcome reminder that it's not always quite as simple as that. I got back from work in time for the Asr Prayer - and struggled to do the necessary. Then, upon completion, I went into full scale collapse, lying helplessly, haplessly on our sofa, utterly drained. Nothing could have made me move for the next hour and a half or so.

Finding the wherewithal to get moving again, making myself human and preparing to break the fast took some doing. But it was done - in itself a reminder that there's more to us than we might think even as we discover we're much less than we really want to be.

Getting Our Sparkle Back

27 Ramadhan, 1442

We bought a new set of sparkling lights a couple of days back to replace our sadly malfunctioning favourite set of yore. But then we found ourselves unsure of exactly how to put up the new ones. Fortunately we had Fafa come to our aid this evening, and so now we are one major step closer to the Raya celebration.

I'm happy to be so easily pleased.

Glorious Food (And Drink)

26 Ramadhan, 1442

This will sound hideously complacent, but I'll say it anyway. Over roughly a quarter of a century of fasting in Ramadhan my appreciation of the sheer wonder of being able to enjoy food and drink has steadily increased. And funnily enough I don't seem to have to imbibe as much as I used to.

Routines can be very useful, but routinely quaffing and munching is most emphatically counter to our interests. Breaking free of such routines has much to recommend it.

Idolatry

25 Ramadhan, 1442

Power, status, money, celebrity, youthful attractiveness, the cult of the self. The empire of illusion is powerfully seductive; we underestimate it at our peril. This holy month is a bulwark to help protect the self and the wider community against the intrusion of that empire. Let's hope the barrier holds.

Below The Surface

24 Ramadhan, 1442

In a world of surfaces following the fast enables us to dive deep. The challenge is to navigate those depths and remember them when we, inevitably, surface again.

Necessary Caution

23 Ramadhan, 1442

In recent days we've seen an increase in the number of community-based infections related to Covid-19 within these shores. The numbers are by no means terrible, but they've rightly rung alarm bells. The authorities here understand the concept of exponential growth and they have a firm grip on science and common sense - and they are decisive when it's necessary to be so. It's been made very clear indeed that another lockdown is on the cards if the numbers don't improve.

I'm feeling the results already. The gym is now out of bounds, which is both mildly annoying and happily reassuring. It's good to be in a place, no matter how far it is, in which an admirable commonality of purpose serves to bind the community. We've been lucky here so far, and there's a decent chance that we'll continue to be so.

On The Rise

22 Ramadhan, 1442

I cleared my examination marking for IB over the long weekend, although I still need to check-in daily on my team to see if anyone needs help. Listening to tens of Individual Orals is somewhat wearing, but it was something of a change from marking written scripts. No difficult handwriting to have to figure out - but one or two orals that required a third listen-to to make sure I'd understood what was being said.

To my surprise the thing that I found most irritating was the number of candidates employing uptalk - the constant use of rising inflections at the end of statements so that they sound like questions. Initially I found this somewhat endearing in its hapless tentativeness, but it wears you down, especially if you get batches of it. I had to consciously avoid marking down out of annoyance. I suppose it was a good thing I was doing the marking in fasting month as I was unusually conscious of the need for charitable patience.

Thank goodness uptalk hasn't infiltrated its way into local patterns of speech. Not so far, at least.

In Production

21 Ramadhan, 1442

As we move into the final third of the fasting month Noi is stepping up production in the kitchen. This is a familiar scenario. The biscuiting is in full swing, which means that Hari Raya isn't all that far away.

They taste as good as they look, by the way, just in case you were wondering. 😊😊😊

Even More Complicated

20 Ramadhan, 1442

Having arrived at the final chapters of Tariq Ramadan's The Messenger, I'm struck by the unrelenting nature of the challenges faced by the Prophet - peace be upon him - to the very end. I suppose all Muslims tend to think of the triumphant return to Makkah as the endpoint of the story, but existential threats remained even after the capitulation of the Quraysh. Indeed, the assimilation of the converted Quraysh was, in a sense, as much as threat to the ummah as it was a triumph.

What simplifies the impossible complexities of the survival and expansion of the first Muslim community on the Arabian peninsula is the character of the Messenger himself. To be confronted by that exemplar of complete integrity is compelling to say the least. When I first read the story I recall the fascination attendant upon the unpredictability of the narrative, the sense of being a spectator to something both extraordinary and curiously satisfying - knowing that this was an encounter with a kind of 'rightness'.

Encountering the tale again, the novelty has gone, but not the sense of compulsion, the satisfaction. Those are stronger than ever. 

In Company

19 Ramadhan, 1442

This evening marked our first communal breaking of the fast this year. We had Fuad & Rozita & family around along with the equivalent from Hakim & Intan. Amicably noisy & celebratory. Unfortunately the twinkling lights we put up in the afternoon failed to twinkle, or, at least, three quarters of them refused to light up so the celebration wasn't quite complete. A reminder that you can't have everything even when you think you can.