First Half of Ramadhan 1431H

Ramadhan is back and this time round, the situation changes a bit for us. The last four years, we loose a family member when Kakak went to MTS. As we got use with just the four of us, this year Abang left us for IQKL. The time will come when there will be just the two of us berbuka and bersahur!

This year, we continue to perform solat Terawih at Surau Al-Ittihad and we are very fortunate to have Ustaz Uwais Al-Qarni Al-Hafiz (http://uwaisonline.blogspot.com/) as our Imam again this year. Uwais, although just 23 years old, he is an expert in Qiraat and everyday he will teach us different types of Qiraat, some we have never heard before. His recitation of the Quran in different Qiraat amazed us. Since he became our imam terawih since last year, our surau is packed until the last week of Ramadhan.

Since it is just the three of us plus bibik, we had a simple iftar and sahur. We usually buy kueh from PaRam (short form for Rasar Ramadhan - new word which I came across in FB status!) since Abah berbuka with kueh and have rice only after solat maghrib. By then, we are quite full and have not been doing justice to Bibik's cooking! After terawih, the craze for food return and the three of us will have a light supper at Deen's or at Thira's Tomyam for Mustafa Jones' beef burger since OneStepKL is yet to resume business since ramadhan started. For sahur, our standard menu is a combination of either serunding daging, telur dadar, ikan kering, telur masin, sardin, ikan bilis or daging goreng. That has been our menu for more than 15 years now!

So far, we had iftar twice outside, at Tok's house during the first week of Ramadhan and last weekend at Bukit Indah. Every year, we will gather at Tok's house berbuka with her and everybody will bring either home-cooked meal or food from PaRam. The dining table will be full of "lauk-pauk" and "kueh-mueh" till you don't know what you should eat first after the azan! The eating continues till everyone left for solat terawih at the surau next door and will resume once everybody is back from terawih. The left-over food will not go to waste when everybody start to "tapau" for sahur!

Kak Nor, my parents' neighbour has been organising iftar for the past few years for her husband's students and relatives and she will use my parents' house to accomodate the 200 guests. Since Pak Ngah's catering, Pesona Rasa cooked for the iftar, we were all invited for the berbuka. So, we took the opportunity to celebrate Dijah's 3rd birthday which was on 10 August 2010. Happy 3rd Birthday to our sweet and bubbly Khadijah Arissa.

Next weekend, the 3rd weekend of Ramadhan, we planned to go back to Kelantan to fetch Dini from MTS and have iftar and terawih at Kuala Krai and Kota Bharu. For the first time, we plan to do our Raya Shopping in KB. You will be amazed that the stuff in KB is so much cheaper than in KL and of course less crowded! We may have iftar in Kuantan during the last weekend of Ramadhan like what we did last year when we had iftar with Pak Long and Mak Long in the open space beside Masjid Negeri. They still sell their signature Royal Pudding and this year, the sale has been very encouraging! Good for them.

So far, the first half of Ramadhan has been good. May this holy month bring us happiness, stengthen our imaan, erase our sins and purify our heart. May Allah swt bestow this favour on all of us, amin.