Ramadan has begun, alhumdulillah. From outside our bedroom window we see the masjid construction progressing promisingly. The dome is taking shape and we are sanguinely anticipating the days we will, inshaAllah, be hearing the adhan again and walking over to pray in jama’ah.  Meanwhile, the children are childrening (which is, of course, a verb to denote the childrening tendency of children to thoroughly enjoy childhood) with their colouring, and their games and their cartoons and their riddling and their newly learnt skill of scaling every door frame in the house and somersaulting on a loop from one end of my bed to the other.

Summer has begun and is warming up; as I went up to the balcony in the blinding glare of the afternoon sun to hang some washed sheets, stepping out in the yellow heat and squinting away the harsh dryness even as it instantly warms up my covered hair, I feel a grim satisfaction in thinking it probable that the sheets barely need 20 minutes to dry through. I did not go back to check. 😀 Back in Saudi, I remember how our clothes would often dry up like papad if we left them out for too long.

Ramadan is here and the sehri alarms are back on and the days are going by like Ramadan days go by, in the blink of an eye. How many Ramadans have gone by and how different this one is! May Allah purify us and accept from us and forgive us, this blessed month. May He remove from our communities harm and evil and make us from among His grateful slaves. Ameen.