Food Festival

This entry may be a bit late in coming – Ramadan already started over a week ago – but somehow I wasn’t able to put this down till now.

In any case, Ramadan is finally here, after a full year has gone by and we as Muslims are asking ourselves a lot of important questions this month.

Surprisingly, one of the most frequently asked question is:

“What’s cooking?”

I don’t mean to exaggerate but the way things are sometimes, you almost start to wonder if its a month long food festival. While businesses in places like the Middle East tag up a “Ramadan-Special” for almost anything – ranging from discount sales to lavish evening buffets, more and more normal people seem to be concerned about just one thing: Food.

Every time I call up one of the guys, they want to know about what I had for Iftar, or planning to have for Sahur or the midnight snacks right now.

I guess its time we stepped outside our food fantasies for a while and started concentrating on what Ramadan’s really about: Ibadah, Qiyam-ul-Layl and in other words; supplications.

Ramadan is a month of blessings, and thus makes sense to ask Allah for forgiveness and turning to Him in repentance.

The food factor can take the back seat for a while.

Peace.