Eid

The day of Eid brought along so much excitement and joy in our home especially
since we could now officially say that Yusuf completed his first fasting for the whole
month of Ramadaan. The house echoed with the takbir recitation from the
masjid’s audio , while Hamza tried imitating it too. The phone was ringing
endlessly from this side of the world, and from all our family from across the globe.

Asmaa Khala was the first one to call us this morning. She said that she was happy to
have both Abdul Kareem and Sulaiman back home after the whole month of
Ramadaan, as they were away leading tarawih salaah in a different city . She said
that she felt so anxious when she saw her neighbours and their six children on her
doorstep this morning. However, all was well. The mother had recovered from her
illness, and they had come over to drop some cake , and thank her for looking after
the children. When they had left, Abdul Kareem and Sulaiman found two eggs on
their bed. It seems like the children had left them a little Eid gift.

Salma Khala was so proud about Yusuf's achievement of completing his fast for the
whole month. She said that Abduraheem had wanted to send him a cricket bat
through the mail , but it turned out that the cost of mailing it was more pricey than
the bat itself . She, however said that she sent us all something through the mail
which will reach us shortly.

Mamoo surprised us with a video call . We finally saw cute and precious little
Zaytoon, and our cousins Maariyah, Umar and Mahmood. Upon Ummi’s insistence
Mamoo delighted us with a tale from back in the days when he and Ummi were small.
Back then when they were little, people often gave money as a gift to all the kids
on Eid, and especially if you fasted for the whole month. The time that Mamoo was
five years old there was a brand-new coin that was released replacing a previous
bank note of the South African two rand. They visited one of Nana’s sisters, and she
gave Ummi, Asmaa and Salma Khala the brand new coin. Mamoo however received
the old R2 banknote. Mamoo said that he was so upset that when he got to the car,
he secretly tore it up into a thousand pieces and stuck it between a gap of the seats.
He only wanted the new coin too. If only he knew that many years ahead that possibly
that very same 2 rand note would be more valuable than its actual worth. We wanted
to know how much is a R2 compared to Canadian dollars, and were shocked to hear it
was only 17c.
‘What can you buy from 17c?’ asked Yusuf. ‘ Well, we could buy a lot of things back
then, maybe 4 chocolate bars , and even a box of cereal . But now things are
obviously much more expensive’, replied Mamoo. It is always pleasant speaking to
Mamoo, and we always love it when he speaks about the times when he and Ummi
were young.

Abbi was the only one that went to Daadi and Daada’s home due to Covid 19
restrictions. Abbi did video call us from their place . Daadi and Daada wanted to see
us, and Abbi showed me that he had already hung my painting on their living room
wall . They really liked it so much. Abbi also showed the Eid card that Humaira
completed with all of our contributions. It was lovely.

We received many gifts that Abbi collected from Daadi and Daada’s home which
our aunts and uncles had left there. There were extra gifts for Yusuf too. Ummi did
remind Yusuf that the gifts from Allah for the reward of fasting will be much bigger
and better than all the gifts that we all received.

We missed having lunch with the whole family like we've done in previous years.
Later in the afternoon all of the older girl cousins and our younger siblings joined a
zoom meeting that Humaira set up for us all. At least this was one way which we
could see everyone together. We all spoke about our Ramadaan highlights, from our
happiest, most sad, funny and most memorable days.

My happiest was completing the Quraan . Most of us said that the fire was the
most saddest day that had passed in Ramadaan. However, Yumna who only turned
six had to share her most saddest day. It was the day that she ended up swallowing
her first loose tooth . She said that after all the time that it was in her mouth since
she was a baby she couldn't even get to hold it in her hand . I found it quite
amusing, and Ayesha told her that there will be many more teeth that will fall out.

Ayesha and I had lots to share about the funniest times we had in Ramadaan, from
the mount of tissues , to tayammum and the secret detectives . Humaira
also shared the day that the twins used Uncle Muhammad's itrs. She said that up until
now the pairs of clothes that they both wore that day, still smells like the itr even
though it was washed several times.
 However, the funniest was Tasneem’s chicken nuggets that she had made
the family for iftaar one night. She said that everyone was enjoying the nuggets
until her mom tasted one of them and commented that they had a strange
banana flavour. Her mom enquired about the breadcrumbs that she
used, and they found out that the container that she thought had breadcrumbs
was actually baby Abdullah's banana flavoured cereal! Yes, she actually coated the
chicken in baby cereal and not breadcrumbs. The funniest part is that everyone
couldn't taste the banana flavour because they ate it with so much Barbecue
sauce , and by the time that her mom had found out, there was only one
chicken nugget left. I am sure the Yusuf is going to tease Ahmad about eating baby
cereal the time he sees him.

After all the chatting our aunts and uncles joined in too, with Uncle Yunus giving
the final words of advice. He told us that since Ramadaan has ended, our good
deeds should not end too. We should be continuous with our good deeds
throughout the year. Worshipping Allah will only bring us closer to Him. He told us
to be steadfast with our ibaadah and to treasure the bounty of the Quraan by
reciting it daily, and that includes today on Eid. We should make extra effort to
learn the Quraan.

He ended off with a special dua for us all, the Ummah, and rest of mankind too.
He made dua for us to stay steadfast, strengthen our Iman through all the trials
that we face, for good health and protection from illness, and a special dua for the
Muslims in Palestine.

After all the laughter and tears we all signed off. We spent our last moments of
Eid joy with our Ummi and Abbi.

The End
Day 23
Day 23
Ramdaan 1442 ____ _____________ 2021

Good Deed Challenge