Parents look forward to Ramadan to teach their children to fast
MIRI: As the Ramadan month is just around the corner, Muslims around the world are getting ready to fast and for parents, training their children to fast is something that they look forward to though it is not obligatory for young children until they reach the age of adolescence.
It is also a norm for beginners to be trained by their parents to fast half day; nevertheless, children should be told to fast so that they can get used to it, and because the good deeds that they do will be recorded.
Seven-year- old Zara Zayn Zenia Aswandy yesterday said all she can recall is having to fast for two days last year and when asked if she knows what fasting is all about, she said fasting is when one can only eat after the call of Maghrib prayer.
Children should be taught to fast gradually and parents should never force them but instead make fasting a fun matter and a way to teach them about patience.
“When fasting, I have to be very patient and wait for the time to break fast, if I cannot fast the whole day, I will break fast early,” Zara told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Meanwhile for Muhammad Mirza Zemri, he said he had been taught to fast since he was in the kindergarten.
“During sahur, I will eat rice and I fast for the whole month since I was in kindergarten and my parents encourage me to be patient all the while and this year I will try to do the same,” said the eight-year- old SK Agama ( MIS) Miri student.
For the eldest of three siblings, Sekolah Kebangsaan Sayed Othman pupil Fateha Elim Wahyu Yuda said fasting is no easy task as sometimes she feels weak especially when the weather is hot.
“I started fasting since I was in the kindergarten but my parents did not force me to fast the whole day because sometimes I felt weak so I had to fast half way through only,” she said, adding her mother would usually cook food for breaking fast and sometimes they would go to the Ramadan bazaar to get
When fasting, I have to be very patient and wait for the time to break fast, if I cannot fast the whole day, I will break fast early. Zara Zayn Zenia Aswandy
food.
Eleven-year- old Wan Muhammad Haziq Wan Habib, however, said the best part of the fasting month is when he breaks fast and gets the chance to play fireworks at night as well.
“Sometimes I could not fast fully in the fasting month because it is quite tiring as we cannot eat and sometimes it is quite difficult for me to wake up for sahur.
“My favourite food when breaking fast is ‘cakoi’, sometimes my mum will cook and sometimes we will buy food at the bazaar,” the eldest of five said, adding that fasting means that Aidilfitri is near which is something he looks forward to.
The holy month of Ramadan is a period for Muslims around the world to fast through the day, from dawn to sunset and during this period they are required to abstain from consuming food and drinks, any wrongdoing and harbouring ill thoughts.