A new revert blogger, by the name of Marjana, chronicles his experience of keeping fasts in Ramadan.

Being a Muslim for the first year I was a little bit afraid before my very first fasting in Ramadan. As I was a person, who had never fast before it was difficult for me to imagine how to spend a day without food and water. The situation was compounded by my close relatives and friends: Everybody wanted to express his personal opinion about meaninglessness and absurdity of exhausting an organism, harmfulness of staying without food and drinking for long. They used to convince me that I will not be able to study efficiently during Ramadan. Nevertheless, the more they tried to reassure me the more determined to fast I was.

Fasting in a non-Muslim country was quite different from Ramadan in Muslim regions where we could observe joy, presents, decorations when everything changes and there is a smile on every face. As for me, as I had just converted to Islam I did not have a lot of Muslim friends with who I could spend each day of the Holy month. And my non-Muslim acquaintances when hearing that it was Ramadan time used to notice with sympathy, “It will be very hard to stay without food all day…”
But in fact, it was not hard at all; it was much harder to fast far from close people, without sharing the atmosphere of celebration, joy and happiness. I had to create a celebration myself every day. Ramadan is a wonderful time when one wants to do something good: To feed somebody, to help or just to share a good mood. A Muslim feels especially great when he meets a brother in Islam in a non-Muslim country and shares with him happiness of Ramadan.

Every time after returning home from market when I started unpacking my bags I used to find small presents from Muslim salesmen. And even if it was only one peach it was extremely pleasant and I wanted to do something good to somebody too.

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SOURCE: ARABNEWS