Don't make my old Ramadan errors!

Assalamu alaikum,

Learn from my mistakes:

1. I thought eating at sunset meant when the sun was totally down and no light in the sky!

Actually,  it means when the sun is below the horizon.  At that point there will still be light in the sky.

2. I thought that us women, during our periods, had the option of not fasting during those days and making it up later. But if one of us felt ok then then she can continue to fast and not have to make it up later. If my period was uncomfortable then I didn't fast, and when it didn't bother me I would fast.

Whatever it was I read was not clear. I think it was talking about the mercies on women during Ramadan. So actually we are not allowed to fast at that time and we have to make it up later. This is supposed to be for our health. The missed prayers do not need to be made up for later. That's a mercy. Fasting when no one else is sucks, and getting the fasting rhythm back does as well. Nothing to be done for it, though.

3. I was told that we fast from sunrise to sunset. On the prayer chart they often give the time of sunrise. So I ate until that time. I also read that thing about being able to distinguish between a white thread and a black thread as being the time to not eat any more. 

They say 'sunrise' to make it sound simpler. There is a difference between dawn and sunrise. Just as there is still light in the sky at sunset, there is light in the sky at sunrise.  Dawn is at the time for fajr salat, so that is when fasting begins. 

4. I thought you could pray before eating suhoor.

See number 3.

Islam is said to be simple. When you think of the details of anything, even simple things get complicated. Then when you understand them they become simple again.

My Pre-Ramadan Classes so far...

Salam,

I'm really liking the New Muslim Academy material so far. The Intro to Islam videos are nice. Each segment is about 13 minutes long and I find the speaker to be congenial. One of my favorite bits so far is that knowledge of God leads to love and closeness to him. That would help with improving frequency of practicing Islam more. And actually, knowledge itself isn't enough. If it's not used it there is no way for it to increase, indeed, if it is neglected then the knowledge is really of no practical benefit. When it is neglected it is easily forgotten. 

In the Understand Qur'an short course I am working on the second class. Once I get to the fourth class, my pace should speed up for a bit because I am more familiar with the surah covered in lesson 4-9.

I'm happy.

My 2012 Pre-Ramadan Studies

Ramadan should begin July 20th here in the USA. My practicing of Islam is still spotty. Alhamdulliah I improve each year. This year I am doing some daily studies during this 30 days preceding Ramadan. Last year I did more study and salat than the year before during Ramadan, so this year I'm starting before and plan to continue during. I have found special lecture series and webinars offered specially for that month, so this year I can keep my eyes open for them.

I have a bad sleep habit which is 5-6 hours off. It's supposed to take 21 days to create a habit, so working on it now will help me during Ramadan. Fasting is easy when you sleep through the hungry part of the day and eat as you like at night. That wasn't the intention for my staying up to late at night, however that's sort of how it works out. Insha'Allah I have 36 days or so to make a habit which will serve me better during Ramadan and the rest of my life.

Here is a website called New Muslim Academy. It was just launched a couple days ago. http://newmuslimacademy.org/ It offers some free online classes to people conversant in English who want to learn/review the basics. There will be some live sessions added soon. The teachers are Bilal Phillips, Yusef Estes, Jamaal Zarabozo, Yassir Fazaga, and Waleed Basyouni. I'm somewhat familiar with the first two. So far I don't see anything that seems excessively strict or relaxed.

http://understandquran.com/ has a good system to learn some simple surah and du'a, and other arabic used in salat. They have been around since at least 2007. I am working on the short course. At the end of it, I am supposed to be able to understand about 50% of the Qur'an. They are working on a part 2 of the short course, which would get me to understanding 70% of the Qur'an. If they don't finish before I am ready for it, I can start working on the Basic course. The basic course is supposed to be replaced by having a 2-part short course. There are aids for learning the rest of the Qur'an and things related to it, like tajweed (how to recite). There are 2 versions of the short course, one from 2007 and another from 2011. The 2007 is presented slightly different from the 2011 and has more interactive quizzes and games. This course is a good help in memorizing the short surah and other arabic used in salat, although I thinks it's more intended to help people understand what they already have memorized. It's supposed to take a total of 9 hours spread over 27 days, but I can't memorize all this with just watching a 20 minute video everyday, much less memorize the meanings. I'm not confident in memorizing 5 words in a day, 3-5 lines/day is just not feasible for me.

http://www.houseofquran.com has really nice memorization tools. I could achieve the same effect using a repetition system by myself, but this is much more efficient. It's hard to imagine anything closer to having a real tutor besides hiring or finding one. There are setting you can manipulate to your needs and you can select from a list of reciters.

That's plenty to start with.

Wudu: order of parts

Assalamu alaikum,

As I was learning how to make wudu, I noticed some descriptions added extra parts. It was confusing to me. Some of the details given commonly are sunnah, which means muhammad, pbuh, sometimes did them and it's good to copy. However they aren't required. For example, some people say you have to wash each part 3 times except for the hair. It's sunnah to do it 3 times, but just once does the job. That said, it's not much hardship to move over each part 3 times. In addition, I also have the impression that different schools of thought do things differently. I used to be confused by the order we wash-up before prayer. Here is the way I think of it. This isn't coming from a scholar, remember. It's more like a mnemonic device.

Prequel - use wudu as a time to prepare your mind, not just your body. That's part of why we should make our intention of what we are doing and why.

1. Hands - wrist to elbow starting with the right hand (just like with forearms and feet, and like at the end of prayer where we greet the angel on the right first). We start with hands because we use them to clean the rest of us. Of course we do them first.

2. Face - swish in mouth, then up the nose (so nose water won't drip to your mouth when you clean it), then face - middle to the outside then down (done last, so it also wipe away any moisture around nose or mouth and sweeps it away).

3. Forearm - wrist to elbow, starting with the right. We do the forearm now, so we were not dripping that water down our forearms and scattering it further with the extra movement that happens while washing the face.

4. Wipe hair and ears - our wet elbows point down, letting the water drip-dry down with minimal water scatter. We're almost done, we needed to finish up top before the last....step....ha-ha...

5. Feet  - ankle to toes, starting on the right foot.


There is also a rhythm to it. Starting down with the hands...

down (hands)
up      (face)
down (elbows)
up      (head)
down (feet)

Divide the parts like this and you have 5 steps, like there are 5 prayers each day.

Epilogue: Now that you are ritually clean (clean for the purposes of prayer), you should go pray as soon as you can instead of waiting. It's better that way, plus you're less likely to nullify your wudu by "passing wind" or some-such.

First steps toward learning prayer

Assalamu alaikum,


I will put up some links to learning to pray videos. But not right now.


Here are my first steps to breaking prayer into manageable, unintimidating bits.


1. Become aware of the time. Personally, I lose track of time easily. Salaat is supposed to be done 5 times a day. It is best to pray on time. Find a list of prayer times. One source is http://www.islamicfinder.org There are also programs you can put on the computer or your cell phone to remind you of the time. So an important step is to get used to keeping track of the time.


2. Learn the terms related to prayer - . You can skip that if you have sources that you already understand. There are some sources that use the Arabic terms when teaching you, but that's not very helpful when you don't know what they mean or you aren't used to them. It's an unnecessary barrier to learning.


3. Clarify the order of parts cleaned when making wudu.


4. Get used to making wudu, even if I don't follow it up with prayer. Getting wet like that 5 times a day is something that takes me some getting used to. At first I take time to get the water a good temperature. Later when, when a habit has been formed, then we'll see about not being so picky about temperature.

Nora

Assalamu alaikum - Introduction

Bismillah...

Assalamu alaikum!

Call me Nora.

I converted/reverted to Islam in 2006 from baptist Christianity. Before, I wasn't especially practicing, not consciously anyhow. I didn't drink alcohol, go to clubs, wear skimpy clothing, or sleep around. I was quiet. Still am. In 2005, four of my coworkers were muslims and we had a good amount of muslim students as well. This was the first time I had contact with any muslims. Yes, I made it through 9/11 and college without really noticing. Maybe I noticed some people looked different or dressed differently, maybe I was even a little uncomfortable being near them. Anyway, I didn't know anything about Islam. I didn't hear enough about it to form any real negative opinions. All I knew was they had different beliefs than what I grew up with, and I wanted to avoid stepping on any toes, make them more comfortable. That's why I started researching Islam.

I was religiously rather ignorant. I didn't put much thought in it, but it was like there was only many forms of the same religion. I just didn't have enough exposure to enough people to know much beyond what I was directly exposed to. I had a Mormon friend in high school, but that sounded like just another type of Christianity. I had a classmate that I realize now was muslim, but she didn't cover her hair and I didn't know her well enough to learn about any differences between us at the time. Her family was from Pakistan, but she didn't have an accent. My college was affiliated with Christianity, I have no idea if anyone there had any other religion. I was part of the Christian student organization there for a while. I did a little light research about religions at one point, but the others that I looked at didn't resonate. Didn't seem right, or better. I never considered there not being a God.

I didn't research other faiths in depth. I wasn't that kind of religious seeker. I hadn't felt any doubt about Christianity. I didn't read the whole qur'an before I converted. I didn't know about youtube at first, either. I found a side-by-site comparison of Islam and Christianity and I did some research about some things. There are many similarities. I read from books in the library and I took a college Intro to Islam classes. I didn't talk to anyone about it because I was too shy. Even now I am not a very outgoing person. I did enough research to be convinced. One night I just decided it was time.

I took a shower and said my shahada with no one to hear me but my cat.

I haven't been a stellar Muslimah. Each year I am better than the one before and insha'allah I will continue to get better and my efforts will be excepted.

In this blog I will track my learning. Some is review, some is new learning. This is my 6th year as a muslimah, but there is still a lot to know. Ramadan isn't far away, either.

:)