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Preparing for Ramadhan in 2026/1447H
- It’s currently the middle of Sya’aban, the 8th month of the Islamic calendar.
- +- 2 weeks more before we are blessed with the holy month of Ramadhan.
- Widely known as the fasting month because Muslims are commanded to fast, between sunrise to sunset.
- Fasting for Muslims means no food, drink or other act that would break the fast ie sexual intercourse.
- We also need to avoid acts that would shave of your rewards, or worst no reward at all such as backbiting, excessive quarelling, talking/doing useless activities ie excessive TV/music.
Masjid Sri Sendayan, Malaysia. - Majority of us would stop doing bad things and increase their good deeds when first of Ramadhan arrives. Perfectly logical thing to do.
- But recently my thinking has been, “you need to prepare yourself way in advance before”. Just like people entering a race. To be the best – you would need time to prepare physically and spiritually.
- We can start small such as :
- Solat – performing more on time, at the masjid, with relevant rawatib solat (before and after)
- Quran – increasing the number of pages we read daily, or looking up the translation to understand better what we read.
- Fasting – “practice” a few days of fasting outside Ramadhan, so the body won’t be shocked on first of Ramadhan.
- I make du’a that we are all blessed with the time and health to be able to worship more diligently, more sincere, more quality compared to past years Ramadhan.
- “O believers! Fasting is prescribed for you—as it was for those before you—so perhaps you will become mindful (of Allah)”
Until then, stay hungry, stay fasted.
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Summer time breeds impatient drivers
- 02-02-26 – and just like that, the 6 weeks school holidays came to and end.
- Traffic is busy again and being a warm day, we are bound to see more impatient drivers on the road.
- I had the pleasure of seeing one myself – this lady behind me was zig-zagging, chest close to the steering, looking dead ahead.
- I assume she was late, maybe her first day at work.
- Or maybe she had a long morning, getting kids ready and dropping them at school.
- Or maybe she’s just an actual horrible person. We may never know.
Enjoying some snack enroute to basketball - We can choose to react to it, get pissed off, starts tailgating, or honking. This never ends well. Best case scenario is someone is recording the road rage session and you are famous on Youtube.
- If you are an introvert like me, this angry feeling will linger inside you for hours. There goes my mood and productivity.
- The best way (as exemplified by my colleague last week) would be to just let them pass, and we pretend that nothing significant happened. Meh.
- It’s easier said than done; sometimes with ego in the equation.
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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Cooling down in summer
- It was a hot day in Perth today. We left home to visit an acquaintance around 5pm and the car’s temperature was showing 41C.
- This high temperature usually lasts between 2-3 days before dropping. And maybe it will be hot again.
- At times I prefer not to look at the weather forecast. What’s the point of it anyway?
- You know its summer, so its gonna be either warm or hot.
- No point of looking at the forecast, feeling dreaded of the incoming heat, and still have to go through the hot day. Double the trouble and stress.
Yikes, there’s more heat next weekend:) - I reckon we are living in the best time in human history, in terms of comfortable level.
- My mum grew up poor; so poor that usually they have to pluck ‘rambutan’ (a fruit) as lunch as there was no food in the house.
- Just two generations later, having an air conditioning system in our bedrooms in no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
- I love reminding my kids on how hard it was back then – with the hope that my progeny would always remember our roots.
- May God have mercy on our forefathers, who made sacrifices so the next generation can thrive.
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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How do you de-stress?
- Different people have different stress tolerance level.
- Some can handle the pressure better than others. That’s why some become managers, while the rest are “foot soldiers” per se.
- It also boils down to preference. For some, working 9-5, home by 6 and surrounded by family members.
- To some others, the jetsetting lifestyle is what they have been looking for. Always on the road, or leaving home before sunrise and coming back near midnight.
- Sometimes it not their preference, but the hardship and tough situation pushes them to be on the move, working 2-3 shifts in a day.
- There are certain activities that I do to de-stress. At times, the effects is like removing a heavy burden from my back. One of them for me is washing a car.
- There’s something about watching the dirt gets washed away, or when the chemical sprayed on the wheels turns purple (reacting to the iron/dust), or when applying a layer or spray wax/ceramic layer, or the thick microfiber towel gulping the water during drying process.
- I could go on and on about all the process that brings me joy during the car washing process.
- A friend, whose father was a Mathematics professor, said that her father does maths equations to de-stress. I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite for 99% of population.
- I wonder what unique activities are others doing to de-stress.
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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Learning from your parents
- I have a friend who speaks to his kids in a gentle manner. Never once have I seen him raised his voice when he’s around us.
- When asked, he said that was how his father spoke to him.I guess it’s true that kids would pickup what the parents does, not what they are instructed to do.
- I guess it’s true that kids would pickup what the parents/adults does, not what they are instructed to do.
- Ramit Sethi said that in terms of financial thinking, we are heavily influenced by our parents.
- The way they handle their finances, either being too cautious (we can’t afford this) or overspending (spending more than their means).
- Personally, I think it’s ideal that you pickup something from your parent, make improvements and pass them on to your kids. Be it as an advice or stopping a negative attitude.
- For example, I have seen someone who had hot-headed parents while growing up. But when they had their own kids, they were the gentlest, nicest person to the kids and their wife.
- I have seen people growing up dirt poor, who struggled to make the best for their kids. Eventually the kids grew up doing better, providing more to the next generation.
- There’s always a positive side we could search for in our life, in our darkest hour. We just keep striving and never give up.
- …“Who would despair of the mercy of their Lord except the misguided?”
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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My way of dealing with consistency
- If you are trying to achieve something meaningful in life, there is no short cut around it. You have to be consistent – day in, day out.
- Professional marathoners runs hundreds of kilometers a week, academicians spends countless hours researching. Musicians spends their waking hour perfecting their skills with their instrument of choice.
- Despite this, at one point, your regular activity becomes a chore and boring.
- For example, I am currently trying to eat healthy by way of fasting twice a week (15-20 hours per day without food or water).
- I noticed that I feel different – my tummy feel tighter, I don’t crave junk food as much as before.
- But the past 3 days I have been eating more than usual. Its not that I am hungry, just the craving + habit of eating/snacking even though my tummy is saying “Hey, I’m not hungry”.
- Felt frustrated at times, but I kept telling myself – this is what being human is.
- There are ups and downs. There are days where we want to stop doing the hard thing and get back to the not so positive routine. Sofa, soda and binge TV doesn’t sound bad, does it?
- What do I do? You can either fight it and soldier on. Or, cut yourself some slack, and just stick to the system.
- I chose the latter – to not be too hard on myself, enjoy the life God has given me (within moderation) and most importantly, look up and move forward.
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms : book vs TV series
- This is the title of the book written by George RR Martin – same author of the famous Games of Thrones series.
- The story revolves around the beginnings of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg.
- In my previous post, I mentioned that for TV series/movies that are adapted from books, I prefer to watch them first before reading.
- That way I won’t have any initial expectation. Else I will not enjoy it on TV much. Or worse, despise them
like Game of Thrones season 8. - I have started to read about 20 pages and watched the second episode today. So far it has been enjoyable on both TV and book.
- In the TV series, I am quite impressed with the efforts to recreate the world. A quick search says it cost $10 million per episode.
- No spoiler here, but be warned of the graphic scene the first few seconds/minutes into each episode. You’d either cringe of have a gag reflex.
- There was a jousting scene which made me think,”So this is entertainment for people back then, before radio/TV/Internet/gadgets”.
- I accidentally look up at Wikipedia minutes ago – dang it! Now I pretty much have an idea of who /what the main characters are 😀
- Too late now – guess I’ll just enjoy it as I can.
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”
- This is the title of a book published in 2025, written by Omar El Akkad
- My Kindle history shows that I am at page 98 of 172. I wonder when I would be able to finish it.
- The book revolves around the Palestinian struggle and the continuing genocide since the inception of the state of Israel.
- Omar also shares his experience living/working in a Western country and the double standards of Western imperialism.
- At the time of writing, a ceasefire has been announced – unfortunately just on the surface.
- Palestinians are still murdered in cold blood and broad daylight (including journalists), illegal settlers are still clearing villages.
- For an everyday Muslim like me, it bleeds my heart seeing this continously happening.
- I applaud those who stood up to this at the detriment of their career/status – be it you a politician, movie star, influencer, role models. You know who you are – you will be remembered.
- Just like any other history chapters we read, this will come to an end. And when that happens, we will rejoice.
- “Do not think ˹O Prophet˺ that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them until a Day when ˹their˺ eyes will stare in horror…. rushing forth, heads raised, never blinking, hearts void”
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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Cheapest and easiest weight loss program – FASTING
- I stumbled upon an interesting video by Dr Pradip Jamnadas, explaining the benefits of fasting.
- As with other proponents of fasting, the effects it has is down to the cellular level.
- Different cultures and religions practices fasting in their on way for thousands of years.
- In modern times, it is presented as IF (Intermittent Fasting).
- For Muslims, fasting means not eating, drinking and performing activities that would break your fast (ie intercourse), from sunrise to sunset.
- The 9th month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadhan is when we would fast for the whole month.
- Growing up as a Malaysian Muslim, I recall vividly how we would wake up around 5am to have breakfast, before start of fasting.
- I am a firm believer of using fasting as a means to control one’s craving and weight loss program. Compared to the craze with pills such as Ozempic.
- Key word is gradual – start with a few hours, and increase it overtime. Water, coffee, tea (without sugar of course) would be your friend.
- “O believers! Fasting is prescribed for you—as it was for those before you—so perhaps you will become mindful ˹of Allah˺.”
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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1km to 7km running – what I’d learned
- In my adult years (after high school), I was not a fan of running.
- I hated the pacing, trying to catch my breath with every steps.
- Even when I joined the local gym after Covid, running on a treadmill was only resorted to warmups, 5-10mins. No more, no less.
- Out of curiosity late last year, I asked myself, what’s the harm in increasing the distance, right?
- So I increased it, gradually and over several sessions. 1km to 2km, then 3km, then 5km.
Joined Strava on standalone. Not following or followed is refreshing:) - At times, I tried varying the speed and elevation on the treadmill. Just to add some fun.
- I increased the running time gradually as well; from 30 mins, then 60 mins, then 90 minutes.
- Eventually I got bored running on the treadmill. Feels like a lab rat running the wheel. I wanted more exciting view.
- My current Sunday morning routine is once a week 7-8km run, alternating between running and walking, with the end point a cafe that I could get coffee and pastries:D
- Key take away is gradual increase and doing something I enjoy. I aim to eventually increase to a regular 10km and then improve the timing.
Until then, stay hungry, stay sane.
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