Ramadan is getting closer and again I see family and friends asking questions like “When is it starting?” and “Did you take preparations?”.
As for “When is it starting?” there is a certain relevance as each year confusion is spreading among the Muslim community in Germany about when Ramadan will officially be starting. Most probably this stems from the fact that we have half a dozen, if not more, large Islamic organizations here that are representing the Muslim community. So in some years Turkish Muslims start on a different day than Pakistanis – and us Afghans… we join in with one of them. I didn’t see a real structure there and I guess that’ll stay that way for quite some time.
When I’m being asked “Did you take preparations?” I’m wondering how one could prepare for it. Should I start fasting for half a day to get used to being hungry? Not brush my teeth in the morning, to get my non-Muslim colleagues used to it as well or maybe just stop using perfume? It doesn’t really matter as in Germany you can’t prepare for it this year. Iftar here in Hamburg/Germany – on the first day – is at around 8.14pm. For someone getting up at 7am to go to work this is going to be a real test for his strength and iman.