my pre-ramadan classes update

Assalamu alaikum,

I could finish the New Muslim Academy classes today, but they have not finished the discussion board activities. I intend to follow through all the activities. There are supposed to be a couple more classes, insh'Allah they will offer those before I have to leave them behind for other educational things.


Understandquran.com is no longer free, so I haven't been doing the short course. They have a Ramadan special of $10 for access to the short course. They need the memberships in order to pay for the development of new courses. There is more about that on their website. Insha'Allah I fill follow through the short course during Ramadan.


I found another source of free lessons for new muslims. There are no videos and no discussions. Currently it is a series of articles at 4 levels (currently 106 lessons total), each with a quiz. Register to have your grades tracked. I'm going to wait a while before sharing it until I am more sure they are a good place to learn from. 


Nora

Ramadan, sleep habits, a smoothie, and a lecture

Assalamu alaikum!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Friday is the first day of Ramadan 2012, insh'Allah.

Fajr around 4:30 am.
Maghrib around 8:30.
That's 16 hours fasting at the beginning of the month and closer to 15 hours towards the end as dawn and dusk get closer together. I'm not worried about it.

Isha around 10 pm. In effect, that means less than 6.5 hours to sleep. Unless I do the extra night prayers, then it is less. I've had bad sleep habits and it has caught up with me. This makes it an especially tough time to have sleep periods broken up. 

There are blessings in suhoor and I don't want to miss any this year, so I'm concerned about waking up in time. It is a good month to practice being up in time for fajr prayers. It takes about a month to build a habit and this is a habit that needs to continue, not end when Ramadan does. I need to wake up for suhoor so I am fully awake for fajr.

I have trouble eating so early in the morning, so I'm trying to drink instead. Smoothies.

Here is my first one:
1 scoop casein powder, chocolate supreme flavor
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
1 cup milk
1/2 bananna
1 tsp flax seed oil

Casein is a form of protein that is slow digesting and flax seed oil helps you feel full longer, too. We'll see.

Some people try to sleep all day and be up at night so they can eat and not feel hungry. They cheat themselves out of the full benefits of the month. Some people gorge at iftar, which does not fit the spirit of the month either. Then they gain weight and wonder why. For more on this topic, I recommend a lecture such as Eating Habits in Ramadan by Kamal El-Mekki. Try searching for it on youtube.


Nora

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.