The Concept Of Ramadhan

(1) With Ramadan approaching, the TV seems to be flooding with various ads about new shows that had started featuring since today. Why, we should ask, is this so? Have the concept of spending the days of Ramadan in worshiping Allah and increasing our faith changed into anticipating these useless shows?

It reached to a point where we now refer to them as Ramadan TV shows, hence the title. I’ve been pondering on this for a while now and some answers have been ‘because we don’t have anything better to do during fasting’ Is this right? How is Ramadan any different from the rest of the months? Are we too hungry that we’d spend the time from sunrise till the Mugrib prayer watching TV? What bothers me the most is that these shows were especially done for Ramadhan, and to make it worse, by Khaleeji people, or Arabs.

(2) Come to the other part where it's all about preparing various dishes, many of them that end up in the trash. It's both saddening and depressing to spend the whole day cooking this as the main course and that for dessert. Again, you'd notice how this relates to the first idea of watching TV all day long so as to be full, as if food & TV shows are important in this holy month.

I, for one, never cared about following a certain show during fasting, but once a while though, I'd watch some cartoons with my little siblings. If I liked a specific show, then I might watch it later on, as they'd obviously re-play it after Ramadhan. The same goes to food, if it weren't for my family, I wouldn't have participated in cooking, but then again, that (they tell us) IS the spirit of Ramadhan; being with and helping the family.

On a different note, some have been complaining about the weather and how unhelpful it would be for fasting, but let me tell you this; my sister & I have been fasting for the past days (something we do before Ramadhan so as to get used to fasting) and it's nothing out of the ordinary (considering the fact that we're indoor most of the time). And since my parents were in UAE, they fasted along with them and we sensed the Ramadhan-ish vibe on today's Futoor, with all the family gathered around. What I couldn't enjoy is the Taraweeh prayers, even though I insisted on going, there's no women-area in any mosque nearby. (Hopefully one day, I could, inshallah!)

Ramadhan Kareem to all of you, hope we could make the best out of this one.

Note: Follow my dear friend and blogger, Sarz, who has such interesting and informative posts in regards our beautiful religion, Islam. Also, check out her advices on how to invest the days of Ramadhan here.