On the first day of Ramadhan, we will wake at 3^oclock and my mother will make food and she will cut fruit and my father will prepare milk and I will arrange the plates for eating Suhoor. At 4:20 we will eat Suhoor and my father and I will go to the Masjid to pray Fajr salah. We will pray 2 rakats sunnah and I will make dhikr “SubhanAllah 32 times, Alhamdulillah 32 times and Allahu Akbar 33 times and La Illaha Il Allah 11 times and I will make dua to Allah “Allah save me from Jahannam and show me the straight path and protect me from shaytan and bad people. I made so many mistakes so forgive me Allah. Allah give me Jannah”. After making dua my father and I will go to my house and my mother and I will read Quran. At 7^oclock we will bathe. At 9^oclock we will go to school. At 1^oclock will pray Dhuhr at my school with jamaath and make dhikr and dua like I did at Fajr.  At 1:30 I will go to my home. At 2:30 I will sleep. At 4^oclock I will pray Asr. We will buy vada and kanji. At 6:29 we will eat iftaar and we will pray Maghrib. At 8^oclock I will pray Isha and pray Tarawih.

Assalamualaikum My name is Eman Shaw.  I will talk about Ramadan in Hong Kong.

My mother, aunts and sisters grew up in Hong Kong. 

Suhoor:

People wake up at 3:50 for suhoor and they sometimes eat KFC :) and fish gravy with rice and maybe some seafood.

What they do during fasting:

Then during the day the ladies will do itikaf, read Quran, do ibadah, and pray, and the men will do the same in the masjid. And some children read books or play. The ladies also sometime shop, visit people, and sleep

Breaking fast:

At around 6:00 the ladies will break fast with dates and water at home. The men will do the same at the masjid. Then they will pray Maghrib (the sunset prayer). After that they will go and eat Kanjee (porridge), Kadalpasi (china grass), fruit salad, vegtable salad, rose milk with sabja seeds, samosas, and seafood.

Tarawih:

At 8:00 everyone will assemble at the Kowloon Mosque (which is one of the biggest mosques in Hong Kong) and the alim will come. They first pray Isha and then tarawih 20 rakah (10 salams).

Salams my name is Eman. I’m going to talk about Ramadhan

Ramadhan is a month of fasting. When we sight the moon we know its time for fasting. We all wake up for suhoor at 4:00 and then we eat food like roti, dosa and chicken and yummy things. Then we finish suhoor. And we wait and do not eat not even a drop of water. At 6:00pm we say a dua, and wish for whatever we like.  Then we break our fast and eat Dates, juice,jelly,samosa,kanjee (porridge),and yummy things. And then after that we pray Tarawih.

Many kids fast half day. I love fasting so much. You learn patience, And you get closer to Allah, your Family, Friends, and Cousins. We also help the poor by giving, money, clothes, and food. We learn how the poor feel by fasting.

In Ramadhan all the Devils are chained. Ramadhan is a month in which we all recite the Quran, And some people recite the whole Quran. Ramadhan is the month where we all have to be kind. Ramadhan is  like a guest to us. Allah sent the prophet the Quran in Ramadhan. In Ramadhan we should try to remember Allah and we should try to not watch Televison and computer. We always should obey our parents.

In the last 10 days of Ramadhan there is a specific day  (we do not know) which is called:  Layl-at-ul-Qadr, That day is very special for us because, if you do one good deed You get 1000 good deeds, and same for bad deeds. So we always try to be in our best shape in the last 10 days.

Let me tell you a story: One day our blessed Prophet Muhammed (Saw) asked all the peopleto gather together when everyone was there he told them that he would tell them when Layl-at-ul-Qadr was. As he was telling them he saw two men arguing so he suddenly forgot when Layl-at-ul-Qadr was. Moral: Do not fight.

After Ramadhan we celebrate a festival called Eid. On Eid we all greet our cousins, and our elders. And there will be lots of poor people on Eid so we must give money.

Ramadhan is a month where people fast. Ramadhan is a most precious month.  The Quran was revealed in Ramadhan. I get up at 4^oclock I go to the kitchen and help my mother put out the food and I wake up other people and tell them to come for Sehri – my chachi, my chacha, my mother, my grandmother, my aunt. We drink mild and eat some boiled eggs and leftover lemon rice (so it doesn’t go waste), with rasam.  We listen to adhaan and pray Fajr namaz. I recite the Quran. I get ready to go to school I work in school. I feel very hungry.

This year I am going to spend Ramadhan in Vellore. At night itself we will go buy at least 2 eggs for the morning. I go to the canteen and buy food – idli and pongal for the morning. I wake at 4o clock and eat sehri. In 10 minutes I finish my food. Then I go for a bath. It will become time for Fajr namaz. We will do Quran – me, my grandmother, my aunt – we sit outside our room. There are sofas for us to sit and recite the Quran. I will go back to my room and sleep for a while. My father will get up and we will go to the canteen. My father will eat food, not we. I go hide somewhere because I get tempted to eat. Then we go out to the garden and my father will play running, running. My father will move the vehicle and I will run. Then my grandmom and my mother and my aunt sit and talk. Sometimes my aunt also comes and plays with me and my dad. Then it will become time for us to pray Dhuhr. We go to the canteen where there are small mats where we pray. My dad prays in the garden. We play, play, play. It will become time for our Asr Namaz. We go to the same place and we pray. We go to our room and pray our Maghrib namaz. Then we all go down to the canteen. We take our own dates and we eat dates and drink water. My father’s friend brings kanji from his own mosque in the month of Ramadhan. It is home made and very nice. We will – my father and I race in the corridor. Sometimes he wins. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I take my scooter and I play. If I race him on the scooter, I win. Isha we pray in my room. We can’t to Tarawih there so we pray in our room. Sometimes we take the car and go to the masjid and pray there. Fasting is very fun

Assalamu alaykum! My name is Aisha. I am going to tell you about my Ramadhan.  Ramadhan is a holy month in which Muslims fast from early morning to evening.  We are kind and gentle and we do not do bad things like calling bad names and fighting. We lessen work for our servants and we do worship. We do not put on things like TV.  We are patient. We give money to poor people. We help our parents and we help other people.

In Ramadhan I wake up very early in the morning for an early meal called Suhoor. Usually I eat beef curry, rice, parotta and roti.  When it turns light, we stop eating. Then after a few minutes I do my prayer. Then I go back to sleep.  Then later I wake up at 7:30am and get ready and go to school.  At school I work on a project we are doing – making a book about Ramadhan. We draw pictures of people in Ramadhan – eating suhoor, eating iftaar (the evening meal), sighting the Ramadhan moon, giving charity, praying etc. Then I do some Maths and then I go to my Arabic teachers. I learn Arabic and to read and recite Quran, our holy book. Then I come back and play games or draw pictures and work on my project book. Sometimes we have people coming in to talk about Ramadhan in different countries. Then we do our prayer. We leave school at 1:30pm. On the first day of fasting I felt very tired and hungry and thirsty, but after that I felt quite all right. And now I don’t even feel hunger or thirst. 

When I come home I rest and do some prayers. Then I play around outside and read books and lie about for some time. Near the evening we prepare the evening meal called Iftaar.  I cut fruit for fruit salad. I lay out the table. We usually have dates, kanji, fruit salad and jelly sometimes. Then we do our evening prayers called Maghrib. Then we read some teachings of our Prophet (SAW). Then we have dinner – usually breakfast foods like bread, cheese, butter and sardines. We sometimes eat a little kanji also. Then we get ready for bed and pray our night prayer called Isha before sleeping.

We look for the Eid moon on the last day of Ramadhan.  On Eid day we wake up and dress up in our best clothes and go to a mosque. There we do our prayers. We give food or money for the poor people so they can also have a good Eid. This is called Fitra. Then we go visit our relatives or they visit us.  We play around and we sometimes we have a party. We usually eat biryani for lunch. Biryani is a dish with spicy rice and meat and some vegetables. The rice is yellow coloured. Our parents and older uncles and relatives give us money called Eidi. Sometimes I buy toys, but usually I save it up to buy books and sweets. This year I plan to give half of the money to the poor.

I think Ramadhan is a good month because you have to be patient and you learn how it is to be poor and hungry.  Assalamu Alaykum

By Mujahid-ul-Islam, 10 years

Malaysia is a country in Asia. Its capital is Kuala Lampur. It is a peninsula. Its neighbour is Singapore.  It rains a lot in Malaysia.  There are many Muslims in Malaysia.  Al the Muslims fast in Ramadhan.  Even some Hindus fast. Everyone cleans up their houses because they say Ramadhan is their guest.  15 minutes before Iftaar, all will be quiet and as soon as Iftaar comes, there will be a big sound from a siren to say that it is time to open the fast. They eat rice, chicken with peanuts and drink juices.  They read the Quran completely in 30 days.

Ramadhan is a month where Muslims fast. They fast from sunrise to sunset. After Ramadhan we have a festival called Eid ul Fitr. On Eid ul Fitr we wear new dress. We eat biryani and we spend a lot of time with family.

During Ramadhan, I wake up in the morning at 4^oclock to eat my sahar (morning meal). I eat with my cousins. We eat ghee rice, chappati, mutton, chicken or fish, onion omelette. We drink a lot of water. When the sun rises we pray salah (prayers). We again go to sleep. We wake up at 7^oclock. I go to school.

At school I learn about Islam. In break I go hungry but I have to fast for Allah SWT (God).  I go home at 1:30. I sleep for a while and then wake up for salah and do dhikr. I go to the kitchen and help my mom and servants and aunties to put zamzam water (holy water) and dates on plates. At sunset we open our fast with all my cousins and aunties and uncles. We first start with zamzam water. Then we eat dates. We eat different types of food like pizzas, cutlets, porridge, soup, noodles (sometimes), samosa and we drink lime juice and badaam milk.  After we open our fast we go and pray salah. At night we pray tarawih – a special salah during the month of Ramadhan. 

After a month of fasting we celebrate Eid. We go to the mosque and pray Eid salah. All the elders on both the sides give us money to buy some gifts but we collect it for our future.  We go home and make biryani. We wear new colourful dresses. All the cousins go outside to eat ice-cream.  I go to my maternal grandmother’s house and meet all the cousins there. I come home and Eid is over.

I want chocolates from Allah. Ice-cream. In the month of Ramadhan, Mama often makes biryani. Ammi gets up very early and cooks for sehri. I also get up. We all eat together and pray with my mom. Mohammed sleeps at that time. Papa does salah at sehri time and reads Quran. Everyday I ask Allah that I want a big house, many colour crayons, chocolates and ice-creams and I ask rose colour chappals. For breaking fast, mom makes juice. Everyday she makes a different juice – lemon, orange, pomegranate. Iftaar time I help my mother arrange the Iftaar items on the mat. She prepares Kanji, vada, fruit salad, harina. Then everybody sits together and reads and do dua. I also make dua. We break the fast and make salah of Maghrib. Mama does Tarawih salah in MY room. I also do that. Father goes to the masjid for Taraweeh salah. When we finish our salah, father comes back. Then I ask dua. I want small table and chair for reading books and I want to write also. I can use it in my house. Then I go to bed. Before I sleep I do dua “Allahumma Bismika Amutu wa Hiya” I used to do dua for that blue cars and pink colour cars, Pink tower, also red rods. Alhamdulillah. I want Boomer also mats, chowki, sandpaper letters, number cards, puzzles, pencils, pencil stand.

In Ramadhan Mamma cooks different kinds of foods. We eat. Sahri time mom makes dosa. I get up very early before Sadiya gets up. Iftaar time mother cooks Mammam. My brother plays.

I make dua to Allah for strawberries, chicken, ice cream toys. For Iftaar Mama makes juice, carrots, potatoes and many many things. She gives me jackfruit to eat. Daddy goes to the mosque to pray. My daddy climbs the coconut trees and get some coconuts for mother. I see many squirrels and butterflies near the coconut trees. Daddy brought plants upstairs and mother taught me about plants. I trace letters on the table. The CD is round. I play with my brother Ameed.