A very different Ramadan

Today marks the last day of Ramadan. I think all of us can agree that this year's Ramadan sure is different but very special to us. At first when I knew we had to celebrate Ramadan without Bazar Ramadan & being able to perform tarawih at the masjid really made me feel like this is a total bummer. But as we go along, I started to see how this might turn out to be the best one yet. People get to perform tarawih with their family at home every single day, being able to complete the Quran in this holy month & being able to supplicate so much as we have more time. 

This is how I spent this year's Ramadan and how was it different from other years. We did Isya' prayers & tarawih every single night together as a family. I personally had never performed tarawih at home or by myself before. It was either I go to the surau/masjid (which was usually less than 10 nights in the whole month lol) or I would skip tarawih. We did Subuh prayers together too which we rareeeeelyyyy do. 

After Subuh prayers, me, my sisters & mama will jump on a Zoom call for tadarus session with my aunts & cousins. We started this since the government implemented MCO and it went on until Ramadan. These are the people that I used to see every week but due to COVID-19 and MCO, this is the only way we could meet and we did it for the best reason. We didn't get to khatam though, but we will soon! InshaAllah.

Talking about khatam, for my personal reading, I also didn't get to khatam. It has been my hope and goal this year (and every year) and I still wasn't able to achieve that lol but I am soooo close to it. I will end the day on Juz 26 but I don't think I can push it to Juz 30 hahah 😅 But compared to previous years, this is the farthest I have gone! Usually I would give up on less than Juz 10. Being brutally honest... I don't always do my best at reading the Quran because I get tired really quickly, so I wasn't able to read a lot.

I'm guessing the 'practice' from daily tadarus elevated my reading speed, which enables me to read more than 10 pages in one sitting before I get tired and my voice dah start tenggelam timbul. That helped me to get closer to my goal. I am not sad about the fact that I didn't get to complete the Quran, I am already happy with my progress. Nothing else matters. 

My only hope stepping into Syawal is that the habits I started in Ramadan would not suddenly vanish and I am back to square one. I hope the same for all of you. May what we have gone through this Ramadan teaches us valuable lessons and changes us to be a better version of ourselves. 

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin, have a safe celebration with your loved ones!