The Very Last Day of Ramadan

Tuesday Sept. 30, 2008

Ramadan, the Holy Month in the Islamic Calendar, will be over in less than twelve hours from now, 0640 hrs.

Looking back for the past 29 days, let us ponder on what have we achieved physically and spiritually.Physically some of us may have shed about 8 to 10 kg of our fats and we may feel a bit thinner whereby we could clothe ourselves with the once tight shirts, jeans and trousers. Well, that's good for our health isn't it? To a diabetic like me, my blood sugar level has been maintained beautifully because I managed to consume less sugar for the past 29 days. The only negative point in performing my fast was that I spent longer hours on the bed in order to recoup my strengths and stamina.

What then have we acheived spritually? To some extent, quite a number of Muslims who have always been shying away from the suraus have visited them frequently to perform Terawih prayers. That's well and good and this good deeds must be prolonged beyond the month of Ramadan. Fasting is not a culture but it is a religious ritual and which is also the Third Commandment in the Islamic Faith. We are supposed to stage the food and beverage embargo for slighty more than 13 hours daily apart from sustaining our daily obligatory resposibilities as a servant of Allah i.e to do our daily routine and and to enrich our submission to Him. On top of that, Fasting is also to encroach us to the harships of the deprived and poor souls on the planet earth. Hence, after completing and performing the art of fasting, we are expected to be more concerned to the needies by contributing some alms to them.

Thirty days has gone by and it's now for us to recoup our strength and our spiritual obligations. By tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, we should be a new individual who is healthy and pious, aren't we not. Hopefully we do and hope the cycle would be practised again next year.

To my beloved wife, children, grandchildren, siblings, relatives, neighbours and students - Happy Idilfitri and hope to celebrate it again in 2009.

Dr Bano