Today is the twentieth day of Syawwal, a month for Muslims who had succeeded in completing the Ramadhan fast to celebrate their success in the feat. Ask any non Muslim to abstain from food and drinks from dawn to dusk or 13 hours, and the majority will shy away. Muslims have to endure more than abstain from food and drinks, they also abstain from sins, bad deeds and sex with spouse during the fast.
   The eve of Syawwal is filled with takbir, when Muslims congregate and call the takbir together, glorying and gratifying Almighty Allah. The first day of Syawwal is the most important and merriest when nearly everyone dresses up with their best and attends the Eidul Fitr prayer at the mosque, of course food is aplenty for the taking after a month of fasting days. The next few days of Syawwal are normally filled with family activities, visiting each other and catching up with family developments.
   After 20 days the  Eidul Fitr mood is still swinging with open house invitations every weekend. Syawwal is also a choice month for marriages and this writer received 2 wedding invitations for Sunday 9th September.

15 days of Ramadhan.

Its now mid Ramadhan, the holy month for Muslims, when we abstain from food and drinks and other worldly pleasures during daytime. Its also a month of extra hard commitments towards Allah, many Muslims willingly give alms and perform deeds within this month whence pious believers are fully occupied in their faith to Allah.

My other half shed off 5 kilograms during the first half of this Ramadhan, maybe the second half will be kinder to her and take her closer to or below the ideal BMI. Muslims are a lucky lot if they adhere to teachings by  Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Al Quran. On a more universal scale all religions teach their followers to make life a worthwhile journey but humans are such that being good is sometimes not good enough and some get thrills doing bad.

Opportunities

Malaysia is the place where opportunities are bountiful. They are there for those who want to put the effort , either physical, mental or emotional etc., to win it. Make sure you grab it before others get it. Either work a bit more, think a little more or persuade more people; maybe a few can do all these and more to get more gains. So good luck Malaysians.