A day before Ramadan...

My second Ramadan in Korea

After I have finished my essays and assignments at 2 pm, I took a bath and prepared myself to go to Itaewon mosque in Seoul, Korea. There I met brothers, sisters, and uncles to discuss further plans and events during Ramadan until 5.30ish pm. Not long after that, we went to Makan Halal Restaurant #1 to eat dinner, brother Kareem (he is a Korean Muslim) paid for our meals and it was so generous of him because he almost always does it and never wants us to pay. May Allah give him barakah. It was 10-12 of us including two little kids I just met today, they were all sooo cute and sneaky! Hahaha. Ah, since I am in Korea, I got the chance to meet Korean Muslims (which is very rare and probably only 0,1% of the population in Korea) and listen to their revert stories directly. Alhamdulillah. Every single story that I have heard always moved me and got me thinking, as a born Muslim, that I have been given a priceless blessing that often being overlooked: Islam. I was born in a Muslim community, a Muslim family, easy access to information about Islam and Qur'an, I got to meet amazing mentors, teachers, and inspirational people that hold Islamic value from the Prophet Muhammad SAW and his companions. Speaking Indonesian, English, and knowing some Arabic is such a privilege because I can learn from many sources, unlike my revert friends who sometimes only speak Korean and speak a little bit of English. 

"It may not be perfect, as nothing will ever be perfect in this Dunya,.... but if we have faith in Allah and Prophet Muhammad SAW we will still be the happiest person. "

Ever since I came to Korea, I got to realize the abundant blessings that Allah has bestowed upon me and my family in Indonesia. Everything was so easy because Indonesia is a Muslim majority country although it is not an Islamic country unlike the ones in Middle-east or Arab. We are free to pray and eat halal everywhere and there are almost no difficulties to perform and practice Islam, you are free to wear hijab or niqab or whatever is your preferences. The only difficulty that we can have in Indonesia is... our own nafs. Mosques in Indonesia is just almost everywhere, probably take 5 minutes from our homes, and even if we are in the mall or public places they also provide Mushalla or small Mosque. The only difficult thing is the battle of our nafs, whether we are willing to walk toward the place of worships and perform Salah/prayers. Here in Korea, there are not so many mosques that you can find, when I was still in Busan I have to go down the hill, take the bus, transfer to a subway, transfer one more, and walk for 5 minutes before I reach the destination. It took me one and a half hour to go to a mosque, three hours journey a day. Sometimes I would spend my weekends in the Mosque as they provide a place for women to freely do anything and take off our hijab there. I usually spent my weekends with my sisters and cooked Indonesian foods until late at night while sharing stories with each other.

Now that I moved to Seoul, I have easier access to more variety of halal foods and mosques. The nearest mosque from my place takes about 30-40 minutes of commuting via subway and walking. Alhamdulillah. Oh, back to the story... after we ate dinner, I went out with sister Roukaya from France; sister Muni from Egypt; and sister Nura from Korea to walk around and wait until Maghrib prayer. I talked to sister Nura, whom I just met for the first time, about her journey to Islam. I really respect her and her decision to convert to Islam despite being the only Muslim in the family. Her story started after she watched the news about terrorisms and 9/11, she was curious, "Why Islam do this?" "Why Muslims are terrorists?", the exact same question that I asked myself long before I decided to wear hijab. She then learned about it and asked her Muslim friends, probably still with hatred and confusion, only to find out that the real teaching of Islam is nothing like the media said about us. She then decided to take her shahada and become a Muslim two and a years ago. This year is her third Ramadan, which was still hard for her, but she is trying so hard to wear the hijab (she likes it) and practice Muslim as much as she can. Her trials and bravery to walk against the current, against her family, against the Korean society that still have some prejudices about Muslim make me respect her more and more.

"Because in the end, this world is created as a test and people are separated entity that will be held accountable for their own responsibilities and deeds."

We walked to a cafe, just 10 minutes away from the mosque, and spent half an hour there drinking coffee and green tea (that's for me!). We conversed in Korean and English and talk about almost everything. We laughed so hard I was afraid if we might disturb others. We are just that funny loooool. Then we went back to the mosque to perform Maghrib prayer. The imam also officially announced that "tomorrow", today, is the first day of Ramadan. Therefore, we continued performing Taraweeh prayer after Isha'. My group chats, with Korean and foreigner Muslims, were full of notifications saying "Ramadan Kareem" and "Ramadan Mubarak"! Taraweeh prayer finished at 10 pm and we went back by subway, I went with sister Nura and talked about misconceptions that Korean has about Islam and Muslims. Sooo many things that I just pray that they will educate themselves and read more rather than blaming and assuming certain things that are not even true.

I arrived home by 11is pm where I met a sister from Syria. Yeah, Syria, it's the first time I met a person from Syria. We talked about a lot of things started from Ramadan to Quran to funny things that Korean asked or said to us and moving out of the dorm. HAHAHA. We were talking in the hallway, standing for more than an hour until the clock shows 00.54. We got along sooo fast and it was so fun and I am so grateful to meet her. The more I talk to a Muslim in the country that doesn't even believe in God, the more I feel grateful for being born in the Indonesian Muslim community. It may not be perfect, as nothing will ever be perfect in this Dunya, no matter where you are... in your home country or abroad, no matter what you do or happen to you, no matter how bad it is, despite being the most attacked religion in the whole world, no matter what they say about us, no matter how they look down upon us, if we have faith in Allah and Prophet Muhammad SAW we will still be the happiest person. Because in the end, this world is created as a test and people are separated entity that will be held accountable for their own responsibilities and deeds. May Allah protect us from the hellfire and in the day of judgement.

Fasting and the Quran will intercede on behalf of Allah's servant on the day of judgement:  

Fasting will say "O my Lord! I prevented him from food and desires during the day, so accept my intercession for him." And the Qur’an will say, "O my Lord! I prevented him from sleeping by night, so accept my intercession for him." The intercession of both will thus be accepted.  

(Ahmad and authenticated by Al-Albani)