Ramadan this year, during lockdown, will be such a unique experience.
It’ll be a Ramadan like never before. I’m going to show you a day of it
Hi I'm Sumayyah, I'm 25 years old and I'm from Glasgow
Currently we're in lockdown and I live with 11 people
That's five of my brothers, two of my sister in-laws,
my niece, my nephew and my parents
So it's still as mad as you'd imagine it to be
but we're constantly entertained
Ramadan just started for Muslims
Ramadan is considered the holiest month
It's the most sacred month because it was
when the first revelation of the Quran was sent
down 1400 years ago. During this month Muslims
fast in order to attain a closer relationship to God
At the moment it's about an 18 hour fast in the UK
Which seems long but honestly it's not that bad
at all once you take it into your stride
There's so much significance to this month
We believe that the reward increases in this month so
everyone is excelling in everything
You are trying to pray more you're trying to read Quran more
There are other religious duties that people
focus on as well, giving in charity
the Muslim community comes together in the
month of Ramadan to really focus and hone in
on that religious duty, especially because the
reward is multiplied. Ramadan, this year
during lockdown will be such a unique experience,
it will be a Ramadan like never before
Now that I've explained what Ramadan entails,
I'm going to show you a day of it
So I wake up at around 12 o'clock,
which is kind of late for me but because
of the night prayers and then staying awake
it's kind of a short window in between to fall asleep
Sometimes I do, last night I didn't so
I slept at 4am and now... yeah I slept in till 12
I wake up, water my plants, do a little bit here and
there and before I know it, it's the afternoon prayer
time which is called Dhuhr. After the prayer I read Quran and then studied
for a little while. At the moment because
of this lockdown situation, the Islamic organisations
have provided this huge online service with so many
resources for us to use during Ramadan
It's so incredible and we have so much time on our hands to go through it
So before I know it, it's about 5 o'clock
Then I spend time with my family
Me: Hi Brother: Ah! Please leave me alone
and then go to the kitchen. A huge chunk of Ramadan
is about the food and preparing the meal and so about six, half-six we get started
So the fast today opens at 9:05pm
All the days have kind of become really similar now,
it's quite repetitive which is so different from any Ramadan
I've experienced before. I was working last year
and so I used to actually get more tired then of
course cause I was kind of exerting myself more
and had 28 primary 7 children to teach and this
year I don't have that. It's kind of more relaxed but you do kind of miss it
Ramadan or not, you kind of miss your
interaction with people. Yeah, I'm gonna take you to the kitchen with me.
My mum and I are cooking today we're making naan with falafel
I'm attempting to record in the kitchen,
we'll see how this unfolds and how crazy it gets.
We took a little prayer break for the late
afternoon prayer called Asr. My little brother Umar is
doing a dopamine detox, he's helping out in the
kitchen for the first time ever and we're gonna
make churros together. It was one at a time Umar!
These things matter when you cook!
Allahu Akbar
We opened our fast. We ate as much as we could
You actually feel as though you're gonna eat
like a mountain load but when you actually
open your fast you don't have the capacity
to eat that much. We then prayed, the prayer
that you pray at sunset which is called Maghrib and
now I have a little bit of time just to like wind down
relax and go on my phone, text my friends, scroll through Instagram
things like that before the next prayer starts
which is called Isha. After Isha we pray Taraweeh
Taraweeh is one of the main characteristics of Ramadan
we pray in the house at the moment but usually in
a normal Ramadan you would pray in the mosque
there's a huge congregation. Outwith Ramadan you
don't get this congregation so it's really special,
that prayer of Isha and Taraweeh takes about an hour
an hour and 20 minutes. The night time is just such
a wonderful time in Ramadan, cause you really get to
focus everything on God and that's what Ramadan is about
it's about becoming God conscious and the main way
to do that is to pray. The prayers are long-
There's a lot of praying!
I'm just gonna chill for now, pray Isha and pray
Taraweeh with my family. Usually we end up just
having some family time and we just sit and talk,
have a laugh and then before you know it,
it's nearly sunrise and it's time to eat and
start the whole thing all over again