Hot Men - Day 23

Bismillah, in the name of Allah. As'salamualaykumings people, how are you all? Freaked out about the fastness of Ramadan? Yeah, same here. The twenty-third fast went straight past me and all I remember is the break of dawn on fast number one. -sigh- Well today was eventful for I; and it went a little like this...

I missed suhoor. Yep, you read me, I MISSED it. Like the late rooster to a hen party, I woke up hearing the annoying alarm, fell back asleep, then awoke late for fajr, and muttered unhalal terminology afterwards while trying to sleep again. Last night I had... one hour's worth of sleep altogether I think. I've been working on the fund-raisers for brothers abroad and local organisations and they simply exhaust me to smithereens. But al'hamdulillah, it's work, it needs to be done, it's my work, and I will complete it, insha'Allah.

From after dhuhr* salah to now, at 2.30am UK time, I have been baking gingerbread men, parcelling Iftar Packs ©, Ramadan Hampers © and finishing off the last batches of Eidmas cards. I roped my mother and sister into it too so you should see the scorns on their faces. The epitome of Scrooge who killed all the angels of Eidmas past, present and future. Muahahaha! An aunt came around just before maghrib.

She's the one who 'converted'; she jokes that her conversion will be temporary, a trial run just for Ramadan and she laughs thinking we'll believe her superficiality. When I compare that statement to other Muslims I know, the majority fasting during Ramadan all do 'convert' or 'revert' back to Islam, don't you think? They transform themselves magically, millions of Muslims rush to the masjid, are giving sadaqah (charity) daily, it's like living in heaven. Disappointingly, come the first day of Shawaal, when the Eid day is, you've all vanished (by you I mean all of us fasting Muslims), camouflaging yourselves and I for one, wait for our Ramadan Muslims to come back again in eleven months.

I hope insha'Allah my aunt's move is a permanent one, she looks good in a headscarf, albeit her extensive vocabulary is somewhat dubious. She also spoke about how family were treating her, abusing her generosity, using her credit card, taking her car, spoiling her children. As a single parent she's fabulous, aware of society's attitudes towards her - she's a lawyer, some worship her words, others want her dead - but oblivious to how much I and her close family admire her incredible effort and controversial outlook. It's a refreshing wake up call to Muslimness. Al'hamdulillah. So these Iftar Packs were made in hundreds. They're all boxed in the hall and will be sold at local schools. I reached the last packet of mint toffees and panicked, found and cut up vanilla fudge chunks as an alternative. Go fudge! And the Eidmas cards as I mentioned, were also made in the hundreds. Want to know something blandly interesting? Almost, almost every 'brother' has remarked on the 'haramness' of Eidmas cards. What a joke.

Now before I rant, listen to me very carefully. I am all for rational discussion, expressing of ideas and sharing disagreements. So long as we shake hands (if you're a woman, if you're a man you get a smile), agree to disagree and live our own lives, there's no harm. As soon as that one man, calling me a 'sister' like we're blood related, preaches to me, about how his opinions, his OPINIONS are conclusive to why such and such a thing is haram, that's when I'm fetching for my boxing gloves. Oh, I can kick box, you should know that too.

Anyway, I get messages varying from: "Sister, 'eidmas' sounds like an innovation to me..." and "IMO (which apparently stands for In My Opinion - in YOUR opinion? Who died and made you the King?) In My Opinion I do not think this is Islamic. It does not say anywhere in holy books and the sonna about this" and my favourite one: "You! What are you doing, emulating the Christmases and Christians, what will you do next, use the Santy Clause and worship him and make the peoples ignore the Islam and the giving charity? Why not instead give poor people, and remember Allah and..." - Other stuff I find too critical. If you really want to see the full argument, it's over on Muxlim.com where I'm a moderator and Muslims in England is featured. Any irrational debates and 'BHAM!' I destroy them like a Clint Eastwood movie. Did I tell you about the gingerbread men? -insert rolling of eyes and long sighs here- Boy, oh boy, they are delightful little scrumptious things. I experimented with a recipe about three years ago and have stuck with it, posting them out as my Ramadan gifts to distant folks. Not too much gold syrup otherwise they don't crunch and plenty of ginger powder for that beautiful fragrance. They came out cool today, masha'Allah, there are... 200 altogether. There was also a 10% mortality rate which I informed others of, this meant for every 10 men, one died. It isn't as humorous as it sounds, the men just could not take the heat. Their heads broke off, limbs flailed all over the floor. My mother joined in my joking by saying 'there are dead hot men all over the kitchen, what should we do? What are we going to do?' Ah ha, funny mother of mine.  I have some final wrapping to do now. I forgot about a sister in Indonesia I know and a young girl in Canada whom I promised an Eidmas card to. I'm logging out to complete that, eat the last gingerbread heads, organise my letters for tomorrow's posting for our very own Muslims in England team insha'Allah and then sleep for an hour before suhoor. Zaufishan ★ licking got gingery broken men from limb to limb... -smirk-