First Night of Ramadhan in Melbourne

Time does fly..

Last year I spent most of the days of Ramadhan in a hospital bed, recovering from COVID-19 with my family. I never thought that could be the last Ramadhan before I come to Melbourne and spend the whole month here. A year ago, I didn't plan to come here, yet here I am spending my first day of Ramadhan in the beautiful city of Melbourne.

Days before Ramadhan started, the council of Australia has announced the first day of Ramadhan will be on 2 April 2022. I think they used the counting method since they announced it before the rukyatul hilal. It's a big difference from the one I had in Indonesia. In Indonesia, the council will usually hold an "isbat" meeting, a meeting attended by various Islamic community organizations in Indonesia to discuss when the Ramadhan started. The meeting is held after Maghrib of the 29 Sya'ban to discuss whether tomorrow will be the first day of Ramadhan or not. The meeting is broadcasted all over Indonesia. However, since I live in Australia right now, I follow the majority here and the competent authority's decision on it. Thus, I decided to fast on 2 April 2022 despite all the news about not seeing moonsight on the night of 29 Sya'ban.

I also learned from one of my Arab friends that in Arab, people will wait for syahadat from mosques all across the country after Maghrib. People will gather at the mosque to wait for syahadat. If the syahadat is chanted, then it is a sign of Ramadhan comes tomorrow thus tonight we will pray tarawih. That's what I understand from what my friends said, gotta read more from the internet tho...

My friend also gave me a pack of dates from Arab, barakallah, ukhty <3 Jazaahallahu khair, never been so grateful. Honestly, I really love the date because it tastes sweet but not too sweet, it's the most perfect tasted date I've ever had.

On the night before Ramadhan, I and my friends agreed to pray tarawih at the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), since it's one of the most convenient mosques in the city (the nearest big mosque to my apartment). Somehow, praying at the mosque is not compulsory. It's just that I feel the need to feel the Ramadhan started, to be more mindful about this, and to find friends, so I won't feel alone when I become the minority here. I gathered many friends to come there. However, some of them were not available for some reasons which left us 3 girls (Me, Arrin, and Mba Icha). It's okay we still went there.

At first, I and Arrin prayed Maghrib at my apartment. Mba Icha already went there alone. We then walked to the ICV. It's not that close to my apartment, it took like 22 minutes walk as you can see from the maps here. But all I think was, the further we walk, the harder our track to the mosque, the bigger rewards we will get in the hereafter. And also I love looking at the night sky in Melbourne, we got a really nice view of the city from QVM's park lot.

Walking at the park at night may be a good idea and also a bad idea at the same. Maa syaa Allah, one of the most interesting things that night was I met so many possums at Flagstaff park. I was so lucky, because I've been visiting the park several times during the day, but never seen any sign of their presence. They were actually big (I didn't expect that), much bigger than a squirrel, and very cuutiiiee. Here is their picture.

However, as we walk through the park, we were terrified by the presence of an uncorked dog, running so fast, passing through us 2-3 times. We were kind of scared because the dog stopped near us, guarding the only path that we had to pass to get to the mosque. We tried to stay calm. Sometimes the dog will remain silent, but after we moved, the dog moved too, which made it even scarier. Alhamdulillah, the dog ran away from us later and we continued our journey to the mosque.

As we arrived at the mosque, we met Mba Icha. We had a little chit-chat and introduction and the prayer started at 8:30. The prayer was not different from the ones I had in Indonesia. They held 4 times tarawih, 2 rakaat each, so 8 rakaat in total, with witr. The imam recited Al-Baqarah (until half-page of Juz 1 I guess) respectively for the prayer. After the first 2 prayers of tawarih, a brother gave a lecture. 

After that, the imam was switched which made me a bit surprised. I was surprised because I think the next imam had a different qiraat which was a bit odd for me when he recited the Al-Qur'an, but I know that the difference in qiraat does exist, so I wasn't bothered that much.

The prayer ended at 10. We had a little chit-chat and received a warning from the mosque administrator because the mosque was going to be closed. We went out of the mosque at 10:20 and walk to the nearest tram stop to ride tram number #30 inside the free tram zone. As we waited, rain poured like a snow in Melbourne, Although it was like a water mist in the sky, it was heavy rain I could say for a city like Melbourne. We waited for like 30 minutes until we realized that the tram number #30 was actually out of service. We waited another 10-15 minutes for another tram, but nothing came. So we decided to take a walk home under the pouring rain. It was very cold that night... like 13 degrees and I just wear a thin layered abaya because I wanted to get used to the temperature in Melbourne. I guess it works... because the cold that night didn't make me sick at all.

I arrived home at 11:30 PM :)))) I was so tired already but I couldn't sleep because I had a tahfizh session with the ustadz from Indonesia which is held at 20:00 PM western Indonesian time (00:00 AM AEDT :)))). It was 12 Celcius degrees that night. It was kinda stressing because I finally slept at 1:30 AM and woke up at 5 AM in the morning for sahur. I thought I might get sick from the cold, late sleep, and stress. I even took 2 tablets of Tolak Angin to avoid getting sick on sahur. But Alhamdulillah biidznillah I'm very healthy right now <3

Couldn't be more grateful... first night of Ramadhan always gives the best memories for me.. In syaa Allah may Allah ease us in this Ramadhan and make us a better person day by day.