Ramadan 2003
So the Holy month of Ramadan marks the start of the
cleansing of the soul so to speak. The gates of hell is closed, the devil’s
tied up, people appear to be spiritually uplifted, and of course the Saudi
brain shuts down completely.
Our school day started at 9 am and closed at 1.30 as
opposed to the 7 till 3, other times of the year. School was only open for about three weeks into Ramadan. After that everyone
would go on vacation for about two weeks. Our school day was an easy, short one-except
the little ones I taught, did not fast. They were too young, and pumped up with
the same venomous energy as before. I, on the other hand was weak, as the heat
made my first fasting experience in Jeddah, a tiresome one. Although it was
natural to experience frustration with them, the limits of patience had to be
pushed to the very end. On getting home in the afternoons, one would just crash
and burn. Sunset couldn’t come any faster as I would see mirages of luscious
waterfalls everywhere. I remember the first night, I broke my fast with a liter
of water in one go. Well so it seemed. I just couldn’t stop drinking.
In other countries, especially in Western Countries,
Ramadan is seen as extremely spiritual time, so all forms of entertainment
seizes. People are pious, even ones that are normally not. After the breaking of
the fast, Muslim’s hearts become even more sombre and peaceful. In some case
the tv isn’t even turned on, unless it’s to watch some Islamic programming.
They then go to mosque to pray the optional prayers for added reward. Later, the
streets are quiet and everyone prepares for work the next day, as the status
quo remains the same even in Ramadan.
In Jeddah, the opposite happens. Festive lights paved
the streets, music blarring out of every car, and shops are open to the wee
hours of the morning. Nobody goes to bed before sunrise and traffic is a
nightmare.
The funny thing is that the mosques have prayers going on,
but most people choose not to go. Instead they hang out with their friends, shopping
with their families or partake in some sporting activity or another. Girls are
often chased down at the various shopping malls by the young, ambitious and
sometimes idiotic Saudi youth, who has absolutely no incling of how a woman
should be treated.
These kinds of activities are normally practised other
times as well, but it’s magnified ten times during the month of Ramadan. It’s
like they come alive at night, with a renewed sense of energy after being woken
out of their deep vampirious slumber of the day. They don’t really feel what it
is to be poor. They don’t identify what the needy goes through; as this is one
of the reasons why we fast during this month. They just sleep it away, and go
on normally at night.
As an expatriate Muslim living here, nobody watches you.
It’s easy to become enticed and trapped. There’s no one who cares what you do.
Society’s expectations of you has no relevance. So the only person who can stop
you from participating in this ridiculous and frivolous custom, is you. As a Muslim,
you have to be set in your principals and strong in your convictions or you can
lose yourself. Ironical isn’t it?
So what happens during the day then? If the locals spend
the entire night in coffee shops, playing and partying, what happens during the
day at work. Ask anyone who has ever worked in Saudi in Ramadan, will tell you
the same thing-‘Nothing happens in Saudi during Ramadan.’ According to an
independent survey conducted by a local newspaper, the average Saudi is only
productive for about 30 minutes during this holy month. They get to work very
late and then continue to sleep once there. Phones gets taken off the hooks and
office doors are locked, epecially in government departments. You can forget
about visa applications, drivers license or any other government related
applications or queries.
Then comes the preceding hour to sunset, when everyone’s
rushing to get to the shops to buy food and all kinds of treats to break their
fast. To say this is a crazy time, is a complete understatement. The Saudi
can’t multi task during Ramadan so how are they really expected to fast and
drive at the same time. Without exagerating, these guys are really dangerous on
the road. They cannot think straight. They just want to get home and sit at
their tables, counting the dire minutes until the call for prayer. The colour
in their faces would return and so would their humanity. Well their version of
it anyway. Once I counted the amount of fendour benders during this period.
It’s just plain ridiculous. And the
anger flarring from the meaningless and unnecessary accidents, is just
unfathonable. When returning home
myself, I would just blow a sigh of relief and thank God that I am alive and
well. ‘It’s a war out there, and I think just won the battle,’ I would tell my
wife countless times.
Later that month in 2003, we were on holiday, and we
were getting ready to perform our first pilgrimage. Back in ’96, I spent the
whole month between Medina and Mecca. That experience changed my spirituality
forever. So in light of that, I was excited and couldn’t wait to relive the
experience. By the last ten days of Ramadan, Mecca had already filled up to
about two million people. So you can well imagine just being a spec between the
multitude of worshippers, was simply inexplicable. It was overwhelming and I
was overcome with a mixture of emotions. Nerves were shot, confused with their
role in my body, adreline spiralling up and down, and the containment of these
feelings were very difficult to say the least. I just couldn’t wait to get
there. It was seventy km away, but it might as well have been seven hundred.
The roads were packed as a forty-five minute trip took about two hours.
There were five of us-Nizam, Faiq, Rayan, Fadil and
myself. Fadil, a paramedic in Jeddah, was our designated driver. He was
responsible for us in a sense, so he didn’t perform his pilgrimage at that
time. As we were driving, he gave us the low down of what to expect on getting
there. Although it wasn’t my first time, I felt in one with the rest of the
teachers that night, as it was obviously theirs. They were naturally very
nervous. We were donned in our ihram
towels placing ourselves in a higher state of spirituality. The tranquility
befalling us in the car, was much like the ocean calm at sunset. It was strange
but beautiful. Nobody cracked jokes, nobody spoke unecessary, nobody was
worried about the next person, except himself. We were in one with our creator,
and this if anything gave us a profound purpose to work even harder in
achieving our goals both professionally and personally. We were not going to be
detered in our work and nobody was going to make our lives miserable. We would
just remember this trip and everything would be okay. We considered ourselves
to be more than just fortunate.
.......Chapter 13.....Ramadan Part 2 to
follow very soon……The Pilgrimage - The
Umrah
