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Tell me your Ramadan day you will tell yourself what to improve. This is an idea that sprung up at the begining of Ramadan it took a bit of time to gather and transcribe the testimonies. You will find two french words that were not translated “voilà” and “genre” because there are too french to be in english. 

This was recorded at the begining of Ramadan so don’t judge too fast ! The interviewees are mainly male students or very young workers and are anonymous, any resemblance with someone you know in reality is pure assemption and after assumption comes…. Enjoy the reading ! 


So tell me your day ?

Okay it is more difficult than I thought I had to do again the voice note. So… [laughter] first I wake a bit before suhoor and… I… why do I do that ? It is to pray witr aaaaand it is also to wake up my family if they didn’t wake up, also to give me the opportunity to pray if I have time. And then I eat ! I pray with my family ! I do my morning invocations and I go back to sleep.
So till now I couldn’t wake up early because I was too tired that’s why I go back to sleep after my invocations because I am too tired. And hmmm I can’t wake up early because I am toooo tired. So I wake up at around 9-10h even if my goal is to wake up early. Since I am still tired for a reason I don’t know I listen to something instructive or I read something…
I try to keep myself busy with easy tasks like paperwork.

Why do I force myself to get bored and do nothing ? It is too replace this time by doing something instructive so studying, reading, sharing a knowledge with someone. I am tending towards this. It is in a way to fill my time in a very efficient manner. It is in the excellence spirit of Ramadan.

So often around 11h30-12h I am still doing this and at noon I read Quran. Then I pray and I start studying something. Voilà so I study study study. If am not studying I try to make my time productive meaning that I read a book, I… Ramadan means that there are no distractions. There are no video games, there are no TV shows. If I do nothing I do nothing. At least I get bored it is better than distracting myself. Then I…. hmmm normally by this time I prayed ‘asr I read again a bit of Quran… hmm then rapidly comes maghrib time. I… eat and then I rest, I digest alone… because I just digest, sometimes alone. Again either I do something where I can learn something new or I do nothing and get bored but it is better than doing something that distracts myself. Or… I stay with my family until Isha. After Isha I do Tarawih with my family, at 23h I sleep.

I gave you my current situation [laughter] but within few days inshallah I am going to work on my sleeping rhythm so I can wake up earlier to study in the morning so I can do something else the afternoon. Now I do the opposite. I study more in the afternoon, the evening. So I am going to work on this, on my discipline on being productive.
Why do I force myself to get bored and do nothing ? It is too replace this time by doing something instructive so studying, reading, sharing a knowledge with someone. I am tending towards this. It is in a way to fill my time in a very efficient manner. It is in the excellence spirit of Ramadan. So I have the honor to be able to live during this Ramadan so the least thing to do is to at least tending towards this. Oh ! and also something that I do a lot is to attend online lectures… as soon as there is something where I can subscribe to attend to learn about religion I do it now during Ramadan. Aaaannd voilà. Ohhh I forgot about sport ! Every other day I exercise before maghrib.


A home office worker who has a very marshalled kind of day: 

Me my Day is:
I wake up at 9h, at 9h05 I start to speak french fluently [I start to work]
At noon I sleep for 1h
In the afternoon I work until 18h
From 18h to 19h I read Quran
19h30: I either go for an 8 km run before Maghrib or I sleep again (Till now: I did 2 times nap and 2 times run)
Then Iftar with QLF [french slang meaning: with my family]
Coffee to wake me up and to keep speaking french
TV to digest (and I take a bifidus to aid my digestion)
Tarawih and I go to bed at midnight
Waking up at suhoor is obligatory for me to eat, I sometimes drink coffee to have my caffeine stock for the day
I pray fajr and go back to sleep
And so on…


West Coast Customs…

My day starts at 9h45 and I watch WEST COAST CUSTOMS ! just for the time I am getting awake. When I start studying it is usually 11h15. I study for 45 minutes then I take a 15 minutes break then 45 minutes studying then 15 minutes break so on and so forth… This, until 18h, then I do a little bit of Arabic for 1/1,5 hours. Then, I watch again WEST COAST CUSTOMS ! I watch tuning, which one I could do on my car I go on AliExpress to see which potential tuning I could do. Then I watch TV shows until the evening.

I eat iftar with my brother and my sister in law. We pray and then play UNO. Finally we pray Tarawih, we do 8 prayers we recite a bit what we want, generally surat that are moderately long, like al-Layl or al-Balad. I set my alarm at 4h15 just to drink water because I can’t eat in the morning. Then I set again my alarm at 5h45 to pray Fajr because I am too grumpy in the morning so I see myself forced to do that. Then I don’t think it is the best method but it is my way of life. To sum up my day it is a lot of tuning and a lot of studying.


What is your typical Ramadan day ?

And then for evening time we have friends living in the building next to our home. Every other day we go eat at their place and they also come to eat at home the other days

My typical day is: I wake up for Fajr. Actually I don’t wake up for Fajr, I stay awake till Fajr time and I either read books or watch TV shows awaiting Fajr. I eat suhoor just before, I pray Fajr, then I sleep and wake up around 11h30. Yeah voilà…I sleep during all morning time since I prayed. I then read one Juzz. Soooo I read one Juzz per day, it takes me around one hour. And then… either I watch TV shows again [laughter]…or I play like now or I read or I read my [cyber] security lectures it depends. And then for evening time we have friends living in the building next to our home. Every other day we go eat at their place and they also come to eat at home the other days. And voilà, nothing much interesting. Oh yeah and with these same family friends we pray Tarawih after eating we do 4 prayers per evening, we decided to read only the last fourth of Quran so the last 15 last Hizb or the 7,5 last juzz. Voilà


Someone not very cooperative… 

Personally I…………I worked a bit. And I also read things on wikipedia. Particularly on… on Egypt. That had been owned by the British. And also that there was a Mahdist government..sooo a government governed by a mahdi in Sudan for 14 years. Hmmm that’s my day.


The struggle of finding the right rythm at the begining of Ramadan we all exeprience: 

Salaaaam, for my part it is…. Kind of mitigated I am still trying to find a rhythm for these first days. Hmmm How to say it… Typically last night I stayed up and studied. And genre I said it’s not productif. Genre in the 5 days where I try to study during the day I couldn’t write even one chapter for the project I have to hand in in less than a month, and genre yesterday night I wrote almost 2,5 chapters. So I was happy enough. So now I try to see..The problem is when… when I stay up all night.. Bah genre today I woke up at 15h and this I hate. I hate that. Because first hmmm… the stock market is almost closed I can’t make good bargains. So it’s a bit annoying. So I try to find a good rhythm to wake up before noon when I stay up [all night].

And now I am with la mif [family] I have tiramisù at will. I am good. We are good. We wait for the iftar.

Otherwise I study my lectures, I read, I watch TV shows…Albeit I just finished one so I don’t really watch… And then Voilà. Genre friday night I will work in security [as a security officer] so I am going to stay up all night until 8h. I try to exercise even if these last days I didn’t do much. And now I am with la mif [family] I have tiramisù at will. I am good. We are good. We wait for the iftar.


How do you spend your Ramadan days ?

Salamu’alaykum ! For my part to tell you my day or rather my days because they are often similar… albeit it can change a bit. So I am not a model. So at night either I sleep or I stay awake then I… I wake up like everyone for suhoor. Hmmm I eat with my family, then we pray, then I go to my bed and either I sleep I try to sleep or I stay awake. Sometimes I can fall asleep immediately sometimes I can’t…. In that case I go on my phone and I stay awake a bit. And so on my phone what do I do ? I try to watch interesting things or I watch things..hmmm… that are lesssss…No it’s also interesting like “The Office” I find it interesting. Beyond the fact that it’s funny, it gives you a vision on the hierarchy that exists in the corporate world.

What I started to do is to teach arabic letters to a brother, a friend of mine because he told me he didn’t know how to read so I proposed to him to learn

Hmmmm then baaaa I generally sleep in the morning. And I can wake up at 12h or 13h sooo voilà… It’s..hmmmm…it’s my life…Then in the afternoon I can…. I can what ?… I can either maybe keep chilling or….No sometimes I study also. I study the small amount of courses I have but I try to work and understand them well. Hmmmm so voilà. And then in the evening before iftar so I… I didn’t often go play football with my friends…but sometimes I go. Before Ramadan I was going.

But what I started to do is to teach arabic letters to a brother, a friend of mine hmmmm because he told me he didn’t know how to read so I proposed to him to learn. So voilà little by little I teach him the letters, we did from Alif till Jeem I think. He is originally from Ivory Coast so he didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to learn. So voilà. Concerning reading the Quran I don’t have a particular moment but I do it often at the end of the day. Annnnd voilà then there is iftar, we eat a date, we pray with my family and then we eat. From there I go on my laptop to continue what I was doing during the day. I can do many different things it can be working on my lectures or trying to learn on different subjects. Voilà.

Ohhhh also something I wanted to elaborate, among the interesting things I watch, I am following… I don’t if some you know the channel “Osons causer” on Youtube. It’s a Youtube channel where they give a point a view on political topics/news and also on climate change issues, it is very interesting. And above all, what they did, recently, is to create a website named “Osons comprendre” where they deal with certain subjects in a funny way, I really like it and they base everything on serious studies on a lot of challenges like climate change, also on french politics but also european and mmmmh voilà I find it cool. I learn a lot of things. It is very pedagogue.


Tell me about your Ramadan day:

Saalamu’alaykum so I tell you my day: So after suhoor we pray, in fact we do all the prayers together with my sister and my parents. Annnnnd after fajr prayer mmmh I don’t sleep immediately I… read a bit of the Quran, I try to read it with the translation mmmh yeah so that I understand a bit what it says. It takes more time but it’s not bad since I have more time now. So it’s cool I do this. Until 6 I read the Quran then I sleep. Then I wake around 12 or 12h30 before 13h in anycase. Then I chill, I go on my phone, I don’t do anything in particular. I talk with people, sometimes my friends, my family, the “chai” also.

I try to exercise for one hour per day at least. I go running for around 7 km or I do pull ups, push ups, abs, skipping rope and more at home. I try to get back into shape. It looks like it’s working.

Mmmmmh then it is mainly after ‘asr that I start to be productive. I read the Quran again. Then I try to exercise for one hour per day at least. I go running for around 7 km or I do pull ups, push ups, abs, skipping rope and more at home. I try to get back into shape. It looks like it’s working. I do this right before iftar. After we eat with my family. Then we pray. Then we eat again. Then it is already time for ‘isha, we pray and then tarawih, we do 8 rakk’at then I read again the Quran until 1 or so. Sometimes I chill and voilà. Then I go to sleep around 1, wake up at 4 and here we go again for another day. This will be until I start again to work with the PC (civil protection) because during PC I work from 13h30 till 20h so I don’t have time to do anything. Voilà Salam.


Our heroes: 

I think it is an atypical type of day to go to work as usual. For us it is like usual. We have to wear the mask, we have a showcase in petriglas between us and the clients. We take only 3 clients in the pharmacy even if it is big enough, we could take more people but we try to be extra cautious to limit the flow.

So grossly, I wake up mmmmh at 4 or so, mmh I go to eat, I don’t eat much because I can’t motivate myself to eat a complete meal. Annd I eat a small thing while watching Mohammed Heni. Then I sleep until 7. Mmmmh I wake up, I get prepared and I go to the pharmacy.

I serve the patients I mean the clients, the patients… I answer their queries, I explain to them how to use their medicines

I have to wear the mask and we have to protect ourselves against the Coronavirus. I don’t know how you are going to put it but this is for my internship at the end of the curriculum of my pharma studies. Annnd I… I serve the patients I mean the clients, the patients ect. Mmmmh I answer their queries, I explain to them how to use their medicines. When they have certain things that do not need to be referred to a doctor or the emergency service, I try to, in some way, diagnose what it is and discuss with them but since I am still an intern sometimes I call one of my superiors so that he gives his opinion as well. I make my superiors control treatments sometimes when I have doubts. Voilà. And I do medicine preparations, we do certain preparations in a small lab that we have in the pharmacy.

I have to… put my clothes directly in the hamper. Completely wash myself ect. Before touching anything in my house; in my kitchen, before greeting my family to be sure to have gotten rid of anything if I had a contact with the virus during the day.

Mmmhh during lunch break I go back home to take a nap because during the night it’s not enough. So between 12h30 and 13h. A small nap. I go back to work from 13h30 to 18h30. So same as in the morning. Then in the evening often I take a nap again. Between 19h30 and…. Oh yeah when I come back, small precaution, I have to… put my clothes directly in the hamper. Completely wash myself ect. Before touching anything in my house; in my kitchen, before greeting my family to be sure to have gotten rid of anything if I had a contact with the virus during the day.

So voilà again a small nap till almost iftar time. Then we eat with my family. Chill. Then I spend some time with my family in the evening. Mmmmh till 23h or so we discuss and drink tea. Then I go to sleep until suhoor. Voilà [laughter] I hope you can write something about it. I think it is an atypical type of day to go to work as usual. For us it is like usual. We have to wear the mask, we have a showcase in petriglas between us and the clients. Mmmmh we take only 3 clients in the pharmacy even if it is big enough, we could take more people but we try to be extra cautious to limit the flow. And except that it is business as usual in my pharmacy. So Voilà. Voilà Voilà bro.