Retrospective naming.

obligatory journal 075

Fasting week 1 & 2 retrospective

I've been meaning to do this ever since two weeks ago but it just slipped my mind... until now.

Are you familiar with fasting? The act of not consuming food or drinks?

For us Muslims, we have an annual fasting month that's currently mostly in the middle of the year (depending on the Islam months... we still have twelve months but they are shorter, with less days) and not only we have to forbid ourselves from eating or drinking, we also have to restrain ourselves from doing any sinful activity (even kissing on the lips for the husband and wife!) from Subuh (or the start of dawn) to Maghrib (or the turn into dusk).

As I've mention before, the sensation of hunger or rather the effects of the lactic acid is never pleasant since it's doing its job to annoy you into eating to keep the body function going but I'm just embracing it as part of this religious experience. In our belief of Islam, this most Holy Month will chain all of the devils in Hell and let us confront our own greed and lust without being tempted by anyone else. I used to handle these quite well before with steely resolve... but not so much these few years, and I've got all myself to blame.

Supposedly we are encouraged to turn up all religious activities to the fullest to take advantage of this month of Ramadhan but while I do encourage acts that are sunat before, I just convince myself that the daily Tarawih is more than enough already. I know this is just my lazy self talking over me but I know I have to overcome it to at least have a meaningful journey through this fasting.

Oh, it really sucks that I can't drink liquids as frequent as I did before in the morning since that trademark bad breath of fasting is also not something that I want to inflict on others and when I did exercise until I was gasping, that parch feeling will stay there since I can't quench it down as I usually did before. I will always need to use my thumb and index finger to clean up the edge of my mouth off the white excess. Blechh!

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Well, that's all folks! Thank you for your time and please do come back for my future posts! :-)