{"id":25838,"date":"2019-04-30T07:48:34","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T07:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=25838"},"modified":"2019-04-30T07:48:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T07:48:34","slug":"ramadan-deeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/ramadan-deeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramadan Deeds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to the Islamic calendar, the month of\nRamadan\u2014a very important month for Muslims\u2014is just seven days away.  Throughout this month, every Muslim who has\nreached puberty, is sane and is not sick or travelling, is required to fast\nfrom dawn till dusk as mentioned in verse 183 of the Quran, in Surah al-Baqarah<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While waiting for the blessed month, it would be good\nif we can do some revision on fasting itself, so that we can improve the\nquality of our fasting this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many things that need to be revised: (a) the\nmeaning of fasting; (b) the legal rules of fasting; (c)\nthe requirements for fasting to be valid; (d) the intention (niyyah<\/em>) for fasting; (e) the recommended\nthings to do during fasting; (f) things that are not recommended during\nfasting; (g) matters that invalidate fasting; (h) doa<\/em> for breaking the fast; (i) circumstances that make a person\nunable to fast; and, (j) kaffarah<\/em> or\ncompensation for deliberately missing or breaking the fast.  Therefore, we need to do some reading on fasting,\nunderstand them and share them with our spouse and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is easy to share this knowledge with our spouses as\nwell as our adult and adolescent children. However, the approach should be\nslightly different when it comes to sharing this information with children in\nprimary school and the newbies \u2013 those who are just learning to fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally, children are trained to fast at the age of six\nto seven years old when they begin with half-day fasting, from dawn to lunch\ntime.  Gradually, the newbies will be\npersuaded to perform the full fasting especially during weekends. They are\ntaught about the intention (niyyah)<\/em>\nfor fasting; the importance of suhoor<\/em>;\nand, things that would invalidate the fasting. \nUsually, with the newbies, parents tend to take the persuasive approach\nin order to make them fast.  Very often, parents\nand grandparents, offer them rewards\u2014in cash or kind\u2014for a successful fasting\nday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For children who have been fasting successfully for\nthe whole of Ramadan for the past year or two, the approach used is more firm.\nWhile these children are still offered a certain reward, what is more important\nis that they are reminded to improve the quality of their fasting.  Therefore, in addition to reminding them of\nthe intention (niyyah<\/em>) for fasting; the\nimportance of suhoor<\/em>; and reminding them\nof the things that will invalidate their fasting; the 10\u201312 year old children\nare also reminded of the recommended things to do during fasting such as\nreading the Quran and doing good deeds. \nThis is to encourage them to seize the opportunities to get as much\nrewards as possible from Allah SWT in order to improve the quality of their fasting.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides refreshing our mind regarding fasting, it is\nalso good to reschedule our lives during this fasting month especially when we\ntake into consideration the need for suhoor<\/em>.  Suhoor<\/em> is the meal taken before\ndaybreak by Muslims who intend to perform the fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali\nibn Abu Talib r.a. quoted the holy Prophet as saying, “Allah, the Praised\nand the Exalted, and His angels send blessings unto those who take their suhoor<\/em>\nmeal and seek His forgiveness; so, let each one of you observe suhoor<\/em>\neven by drinking some water.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suhoor is performed between 5am and the Subuh prayers.\n However, the woman of the house would wake\nup an hour earlier to prepare food, while the man will also wake up early to\nperform the sunnah <\/em>prayers or help\nthe wife in the kitchen. The beauty of Islam is that, whether you are\nperforming the sunah<\/em> prayers or\npreparing food for suhoor<\/em>, both will be\nhandsomely rewarded by Allah SWT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that needs planning is the menu for the\nbreakfast and suhoor<\/em>.  If during the normal days we sometimes run\nout of ideas of what to cook, what more during the month of Ramadan.  Therefore, we need to plan a two-week menu\nthat can be replicated for the rest of the months, while buying some food from\nthe Ramadan bazaar, every now and then. \nThe important point in preparing these food is moderation in variety and\nquantity so as to minimise wastage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least, for the whole of Ramadan, Muslims\nare encouraged to do other good deeds such as reading the Quran, giving\ncharity, terawih <\/em>prayers, etc.  The Prophet Muhammad had said that the\nrewards for all these voluntary good deeds performed in the month of Ramadan\nare like those given for the obligatory ones in other months.   Therefore, in order to seize these multiple rewards,\nwe need to plan and make time for all these activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that is a lot of planning to do for\nRamadan.  Lucky we have another seven\ndays to go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Islamic calendar, the month of Ramadan\u2014a very important month for Muslims\u2014is just seven days away. Throughout this month, every Muslim who has reached puberty, is sane and is not sick or travelling, is required to fast from dawn till dusk as mentioned in verse 183 of the Quran, in Surah al-Baqarah. While waiting for the blessed month, it would be good …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}