"This day have We perfected for you your religion and finalized Our blessing upon you, and We are pleased that Islam be your religion."

"This day have We perfected for you your religion and finalized Our blessing upon you, and We are pleased that Islam be your religion.", originally uploaded by Rabujee.

These words from the Quran are probably my favorite and remembering this message from Allah makes me feel very proud to be born a Muslim. God-willing everyone finds their goals fulfilled during this Holy month and I pray that we all attain closeness to Allah, peace of mind, humbled characters, completion of the Quraan at least once, and anything else we strive for individually.

I will pray my first Taraweeh of the month tonight (Taraweeh is the special prayer for Ramadan that can be offered by choice each evening, in which portions of the Quraan are recited). I must admit prepping for Ramadan this time was hard for me; I'm talking about just grasping the fact that Ramadan was approaching. Usually, there is a feeling I get before the start of the month and this time it just didn't occur to me until a few hours ago.

This is the first time in my life that Ramadan arrives at the end of the summer and that's probably the biggest reason I couldn't believe it until now (I'm used to days being shorter in Ramadan and the weather being chilly, so just the visual reminders were absent).

For those of you confused about why Ramadan doesn't occur the same time every year, in contrast to the Gregorian calendar, the Islamic year is dependent on the cycles of the moon. I would never do justice in trying to explain this, so here's a very good link at handy-dandy Wikipedia (I love that site...well most of it).

Well, I better get going and kick the month off to a good start (and hopefully maintain it that way through the end). I'm super excited Alhamdulilah! Oh, and I also get to start my new job on Tuesday, during this Ramadan, I think that's a blessing in disguise =D.

Have a blessed month, you and your families!