Holy Month of Ramadan (Dwi)

Marhaban ya Ramadan, welcome to the month of greatness, the month where  Muslims learn to practice their awareness; emotional, hunger and thirst. And the soul practice to always be patience in the face of any temptation. Ramadan seems to create moments of togetherness, where people usually gather for iftar or commonly referred to as bukber, whether it is held in a small environment such as between friends or family, or up to a broader scope such as gathering with colleagues or community, both small and large scale.

Bukber seems to become a tradition in this grace-filled month. Bukber usually held by people who come from upper class society, they form the committee and gather money to fund the bukber. Ta'jil served are not just a glass of water, small cakes or sweet appetizers like commonly found in mosques, but a complete meal from appetizer (syrup, cakes, fruits, dates) until main dishes and desserts. If you go to the mosque, after sipping a drink and eat a few pieces of cakes provided from residents around the mosque, you will directly perform maghrib prayer and went home afterwards to eat main meal and side dishes at your home, unlike in bukber -which I had attended several times- after the drink and appetizers presented, we will directly presented with the main meals even before performing maghrib prayer.

During the fasting month, many people choose to finish eating the main meal first and do Maghrib prayer afterward. And it seems like this habit is pretty common. Many people took up this habit when attending bukber. This is slightly different from the example given by the prophet Muhammad SAW.

From Anas RA, "Rasulullah SAW break fasting with a few rutabs before praying. If there was no rutab, Rasulullah will do with tamar, and if there was no tamar, Rasulullah SAW will do with water." (Reported by Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi.)

"Rasulullah SAW hastens Maghrib prayer by doing what is stated in the above hadith; Rasulullah SAW does iftar with a few rutabs before praying”.

Month of Ramadan teaches us to care about other people. In Ramadan we’re obligated to perform fasting to remind us about other people suffering, the less fortunate people, the disables, orphans, and the poor people live in slumps. Hopefully the month of Ramadan can preserve and increase our faith and prevent us from damaging our relationship with God by restraining ourselves from doing useless things.