I FEEL LIKE LIVING IN SAUDI ARABIA

By: Cut Famelia

This is the second time for me to spend my Ramadhan in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales in the United Kingdom (UK). In this Prince Charles country, Muslims are a minor group, who mainly come from many different places across countries in the world, particularly from the middle-east countries. Even though the number of Muslims is far less than those of Christians in this country, I see Muslim people here almost every time I am walking down the street. Subhanallah!

This year, Ramadhan began when the summer was going to end and then the autumn came. The weather has started to be colder and the daytime has become shorter. Therefore, this year I have fasted for about two hours longer than I used to do in my home country, Indonesia. If the Ramadhan comes in summer this year, I might fast up to twenty hours in a day as the daytime goes much longer.

In this Ramadhan, I usually break my fasting and pray Tarawih in an "Arabian mosque", which is so much close to my house. It just takes me not more than fifteen seconds to get the mosque! It provides food for breakfasting during Ramadhan. We always start to break our fast with Kurma and milk. After praying Magrib, we have some Arabian food. Slightly spicy rice coupled with lamb is the most frequent one. The dessert is mainly something sweet, even very sweet for me.

Since the majority of the jama'ah speak Arabic, the language I mostly hear in this mosque is Arabic. They even deliver khutbah mostly in Arabic. English is spoken very rarely here. I sometimes have to ask the lady next to me what the Imam says when he is announcing something related to the pray in Arabic.

Besides, almost all of the ladies wear black Gamis, some of whom use “Cadar” as well. From the monitor displayed on the wall of the lady praying room, I see a lot of the male jama'ah wearing Arabic man typical outfit, where everything is white. As the ones who become the Imam are usually Arabians, they definitely recite the ayat of Qur'an very fluently.

This so-Arabic atmosphere has made me feel like I am living in Saudi Arabia every time I turn up in the mosque. When praying, it reminds me the jama’ah praying in Makkah I used to watch from the television. Subhanallah!

Being different from other female jama’ah in the mosque, I usually dress myself up with a white “mukena” when praying. Many of the ladies have paid attention for my outfit. I know it must be very weird for them. Therefore, it was not surprising for me when some of them asked me where I found it. They wondered if they could find any here. They even asked me to try to get some for them, who were in a “desperate” need of it. Hmmm... I think this could be a good business opportunity for me. Another interesting thing is when a little muslimah asked me why I was wearing the mukena. “Are you going to dance?”, she continued asking. What an innocent!

Furthermore, I am so happy to see more British Muslimah turning up among the others in the mosque this Ramadhan, compared with the last one. Alhamdulillah! This is a bit “surprising” for me though, since I rarely find any outside the mosque. I expect the number of Muslims in this “Christian country” has gradually increased. I hope Great Britain would be a “Muslim country” someday, insha Allah.     

http://english.voa-islam.com

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