Ramadan as a convert – Ramadan 2020 Day 20

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In sha Allah this Ramadan will be my 6th. I converted to Islam a little over 7 years ago, this did not happen overnight, and it wasn’t until my second year that I fasted a full Ramadan. 

As a convert my first thoughts were that it was impossible. No food or drink all day, during summer? Nobody would surely be able to sustain that!

All I knew from Ramadan growing up was Eid, or as we call it in the Netherlands, “the Sugar fest”, aptly named after all the sweets my friends ate once Ramadan was over. I had friends from Turkey, Morocco and Afghanistan throughout Elementary and High school but I never really knew what they were up to during Ramadan.

In college and beyond I never encountered many Muslims and I didn’t give Ramadan any more thought.

When I moved to Bangladesh in 2012, a country that is predominantly Muslim, I came across Islam and Muslims yet again. I started reading the Quran, talking to my Muslim friends and colleagues and something shifted. My story on how I found Islam and eventually converted is something for another time. In this piece I want to share my experience with Ramadan as a convert, living in a place with no Muslims, except my husband.

After I converted, I moved to the United States for graduate school and lived in a remote town in the countryside. This meant fasting 30 days when everyone else around you was going about their normal business, no mosque around to pray Tarawih and no family to celebrate breaking your fast with.

It was definitely hard, I remember having a minor panic attack a few days into my first Ramadan, I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to continue, and I felt like I was failing my creator. Why would He bring me this far and then put me through something I could not do? Then I realized, He brought me this far, to show me this was something I COULD do. For everyone the first days of fasting are hard, but I did not have a clue at the time how I would get through the first week. 

My experience with Ramadan is simple, it revolves mainly around not eating and reading the Quran. This is how I approached that first Ramadan and everyone since. We don’t eat any different from what we usually eat, our meals are basically all the same, we just take lunch out. We break our fast with water and dates and sometimes I prepare a little appetizer. No big Iftars at our house. This was mostly because our grad students’ budget did not allow for it, but as our budget changed, our meals during Ramadan did not. I enjoy the simplicity and not focusing too much on the food leaves all the room for the spiritual blessings of this month. 

My personal opinion is that food is the least important part of Ramadan so in sha Allah we’ll keep it this way.

My biggest goal during Ramadan has been to finish the Quran, to really sit with its contents and to learn as much as I can from the word of Allah.  I was, and am, still a brand-new Muslim, so those first couple of Ramadan’s, I focused on taking in as much information as I could. I combined my summer courses for graduate school with all the you-tube videos I could find around Ramadan, the Quran and Islam. This gave me the strength to keep going and took my mind of my growling stomach.

When people share their Ramadan photos or stories about eating big Iftars with the whole family, spending nights in the Mosque, praying and hanging out with their friends. I do pray that one day my Ramadan looks like that. My husband shares stories from Ramadan’s celebrated at home and to have one Ramadan in a Muslim country, where life stops and starts around Fajr and Maghrib, sounds absolutely wonderful.

We still live far away from our families and now we have the means to travel, the current COVID-19 crisis has made that impossible. We have moved closer to a bigger city, with a Muslim community, I have found sisters on social media that let me share in their traditions and celebrations (like this platform) and I’m hoping that Ramadan this year will bring be a festive month as well as a spiritual month.

Jazakallah Khair for reading my story.

Salaamaleikum.


Author Bio

CJ van Lit is originally from the Netherlands but lives in Tennessee with her husband and 11 month old daughter.

On her blog, Tulips and Turnips, she writes about simple, healthy living, motherhood and faith.

Her dream is to have a little farm one day in sha Allah.

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Showing 2 comments
  • Shaziya Fayas

    A beautiful story! I’m glad you contributed to this daily challenge. Looking forward to browsing through your blog InshaAllah .

  • Tarawih Innovation

    The information you mentioned is very informative. I would like to get more informative articles like this.

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