Heading out to the UK for my Graduation Ceremony for my Masters. Alhamdulillah. It has been a long and arduous road and I have with the help of Allah SWT completed it! In the midst of my studies I managed 2 daughters, a household and the birth of my third child. Now time for the ceremony. My family and my husband have been so supportive, thank you. So now off to the UK right in the beginning of Ramadan.
The morning of departure we all got ready to the King Abdul Aziz airport, Jeddah. Our route to the UK was via Doha with a departure time of 3.30 am which was just before Fajr time. Afraid we did not get meal (sahoor) at the airport or plane, we decided to have a little meal at home before leaving.
In expectation of getting a meal on the plane (as departure would be before sahoor time) I took just 1 bottle of water. I was wrong in my anticipation. We did not get any sahoor and flight attendants could not even give us a glass of water before the plane took off. As a result, my husband and I shared a bottle of water while we let the children not fast since they would also have to endure 4 more hours (20 hours in total) of fasting (while also running around in airports) till break in London compared to Jeddah timing.
At 05.30 am we had arrived in Doha. Jeddah-Doha only takes 2 hours, but we had to transit in Doha during 10-11 hours. To keep and ease our fast, we booked a hotel so we could get enough rest. Doha is a thriving and fast growing international city and the people were visible in adhering to the fasting month. Then in the afternoon around 4:30 pm we flew to London. Because our trip was to the Northwest so almost all the flying time was at noon (It was as if the time stood still at day time). I looked many times to the window the sun still had not set. My belly got sore because my last meal was too early and not enough. Indeed, there is an option for a traveler to break or continue fasting, as mentioned in a hadith.
‘A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Hamza b.’Amr al−Aslami asked the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) about fasting on a journey, and he (the Holy Prophet) said: Fast if you like and break it if you like (Hadith narrated by Muslim).
I remembered that the Prophet Muhammad would sometimes hold hunger to prop his belly with a stone. O Allah, I really felt how people who could not eat every day. I am so grateful because I am able to enjoy a full meal three time a day. 18.5 hours I survived, but because the sun did not set, finally we gave up. I took relief facilities of Allah SWT to break our fast around 21:00 Jeddah time.
In the UK my family was still trying to keep fasting as much as possible (and we did Alhamdulillah). Nonetheless, it was quite a challenge for us. This summer make the daylight becomes longer. Our last meal is before 3:30 am and break at about 21:20 pm. We stayed in Colindale area where we could see Islamic Centers, halal meat stores, halal stores and restaurants. Not the first time I visited London, but I can see the grow of Muslim community in the UK is incredible. Even according to the news that I quoted in Huffingtonpost ( http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-leon-moosavi/why-has-the-number-of-mus_b_2279610.html ), Muslim population was 1.5 million in 2001 , and grow to nearly 3 million in 2011. The reason is local Muslims relatively have more children than non-Muslim population. Besides, every month many British people convert to Islam. In some cities even its Muslim population is reaching 50% of the total population. In big cities like London and Manchester Muslim population reaches 14%. Subhanallah.
We visited University of Leicester, and at that time we had to find a place to pray qadha Dhuhr and Asr. Fortunately we saw quite a spacious prayer room there although not all universities in UK provide it.
We visited the university town of Cambridge and went to The Fitzwilliam museum at the University of Cambridge area. The interesting thing in this museum is there are a lot of amazing Islamic heritage from European countries, Turkey, and Indonesia in form of ceramics, mat, and coins. It denotes that Islam was influential in European countries in the past centuries.
Almost every day we met with Muslim / Muslimah in the UK. Because I wear hijab, they automatically knew us as Muslim families. Meaningful information during our stay a few days in London were also from brothers / sisters who were not known to us, such as taxi telephone number, street directions when we’re lost or just said Assalamu’alaykum. Even we saved a lot of travel time and energy by using a taxi driven by Muslim Pakistan and Afghanistan. An Afghan Muslim driver in London became our temporarily driver who took us to some places in London, Windsor, and Cambridge. The driver also was fasting and he told me that it was not difficult to find a mosque to perform Friday prayers in London. Even he joked that he afraid to swap his shoes with other worshiper’s, due to so many people performed prayer in the mosque.
During our time in London, we broke the fast in places around where we were staying. There were halal restaurant with menu of Lebanese cuisine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and China. Just do not be surprised, in the Turkish restaurants that we visited though has halal sign in front of its window glass but it has a bar in the corner of the room that provides alcoholic beverages! However there was also a Pakistani restaurant that dared to put big letters on the front entrance: ‘Alcohol beverage is strictly prohibited into the restaurant area’. It also provided TV channel that broadcast praying time for London.
Thank to Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala wherever we stand in the Muslim majority or minority countries, Allah will give us His guidance and ease in performing worship.
