{"id":742,"date":"2015-06-16T22:38:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T02:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/?p=742"},"modified":"2018-06-06T18:29:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T22:29:48","slug":"aishas-first-time-fasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/?p=742","title":{"rendered":"Aisha&#8217;s first time fasting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The paper lanterns were hung, the lights were up. and lots of moon\u00a0and star cut outs decorated the walls. Yaseen smiled. The house sure looked liked Ramadan now. Everywhere he&#8217;d gone in the past week, people seemed to be talking about Ramadan &#8211; how they planned to wake up early to fast, how they would donate stuff for charity and even how much food some of them had frozen so as not to waste time cooking in this holy month! <a title=\"the J word\" href=\"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/?p=138\" target=\"_blank\">Yaseen <\/a>didn&#8217;t think he had ever been more excited for Ramadan.<\/p>\n<p>This year his parents had told him that he could fast as many days as he wanted to, maybe even the whole month if he was able to. And it would be the very first time his little sister would be attempting to fast. Yaseen had tried to tell his sister Aisha what she should expect while fasting, but he wasn\u2019t sure if she fully understood it. Anyhow, he was going to make certain that she was okay when she fasted, and keep her busy the whole time.<\/p>\n<p>Yaseen just noticed that Aisha had sneakily slipped out, while he was talking about the Ramadan decor. &#8216;Where did she go?&#8217;, he wondered as he went to go find her. He looked in her room, but she wasn\u2019t there. Next he tried his parents&#8217; room, but he didn&#8217;t find her there either. He called out for her but she didn&#8217;t respond. Suddenly, he remembered her favorite hiding spot, and went to see if she would be under her desk. Aha! There she was huddled under a blanket!<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Aisha, I\u2019ve been looking all over for you! What\u2019re you doing under there?\u2019, he asked as he crawled under the desk to join her.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Nothing\u2019, she said quietly.<\/p>\n<p>Yaseen looked at her closely. Her face looked like she&#8217;d been crying. \u2018What\u2019s wrong Aisha?\u2019, he asked gently.<\/p>\n<p>His sister looked at him sadly and said, \u2018I know it\u2019s almost Ramadan, and that I should be happy. But I\u2019m just so worried, Yaseen! Everybody keeps saying \u201cMashaAllah Aisha, you&#8217;re old enough to fast this year\u201d , but I\u2019m not sure that I\u2019ll be able to fast! And they seem so sure of me doing a good job. But what if I get hungry? Or what if I forget and eat something? Won\u2019t that be really terrible?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Yaseen smiled. \u2018You know Aisha, it\u2019s not easy to fast for the very first time. I remember the first time I tried to fast I forgot that I was fasting, and drank some water by accident! But Mama said Allah forgives us if we eat unknowingly while fasting.\u2019, he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But what if I get hungry and I really want to eat, Yaseen? What then?\u2019, Aisha asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Hmmm, that\u2019s a tough question. I think if you keep yourself busy, or maybe take a nap it helps to make the time pass faster. But Daddy said that you can try half -fasts at first, remember?\u2019, Yaseen told her.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Oh you\u2019re right! I forgot about that! So maybe if I start with a few half-day fasts, that would make it easier for me to try the all-day fast, right?\u2019, she asked perking up.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Exactly! That\u2019s how I got used to fasting too. In fact, I was just about your age when I tried my first half-fast!\u2019, explained her brother.<\/p>\n<p>Aisha smiled. She felt so much better knowing that she would have a chance to practice for a few days before attempting an entire fast. \u2018I think Mama and Daddy and everyone will be so proud of me for fasting! Right, Yaseen?\u2019, she asked excitedly.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Definitely. And I&#8217;ll be proud of you too! And do you remember what Daddy told us? He said that Allah is very happy when we fast for His sake*. And Allah rewards us so so very much. So much that we can\u2019t even begin to imagine how much!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;As much as to the moon and back much?&#8217;, asked Aisha opening her arms really wide to show her brother.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Even more than that!!&#8217;, Yaseen answered smiling.<\/p>\n<p>Aisha was happy now and hugged her brother tight. \u2018Thanks for talking with me, Yaseen. You\u2019re the best brother ever! And this is going to be the best Ramadan ever! Do you want to go blow up some balloons with me?\u2019, she asked crawling out from under the desk.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Sure!!\u2019, replied Yaseen and they both went to blow up balloons and add a little more color to their Ramadan decoration.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>*The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: \u201cAllah said: \u2018Every deed of the son of Adam is for him except fasting; it is for Me and I shall reward for it\u2026\u2019\u201d \u00a0(Bukhari 1761)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/lh6.ggpht.com\/d4gwrlbjVp3G_o-NCMAkOpRaXAcZqvPbsbfvdZiEFpF4Qe-3RrYTgMF4FP7Pps38nw=w300\" alt=\"d4gwrlbjVp3G_o-NCMAkOpRaXAcZqvPbsbfvdZiEFpF4Qe-3RrYTgMF4FP7Pps38nw=w300 (300\u00d7300)\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The paper lanterns were hung, the lights were up. and lots of moon\u00a0and star cut outs decorated the walls. Yaseen smiled. The house sure looked liked Ramadan now. Everywhere he&#8217;d gone in the past week, people seemed to be talking about Ramadan &#8211; how they planned to wake up early to fast, how they would &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/?p=742\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Aisha&#8217;s first time fasting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[149,148,153,147,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruku.kazia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}