Ramadan is always a special time of the year. Even in prison.
Although I was separated from sisters throughout my incarceration, we still managed to see each other
often alhamdulillah. The benefit of being around practising sisters is
something we can easily take for granted on the outside.
In terms of our food intake, we were given a pack of dates
at the start of the month. Instead of being given lunch and dinner, we were
given a box that contained our iftar meal and a bag with our lunch- which we
would have for suhoor.
The lunch bag would contain a sandwich (e.g. a slice of
cheese in two pieces of bread), a fruit, a portion of cereal and a small carton
of milk.
For iftar, we would be given prison food in prison portions-
by that I’m referring to Holloway in particular. In the beginning, the sisters
found it really tough. We’d be fasting the whole day not knowing what we’d be
given for iftar, only to be given food (often cold) that was so off-putting
that we sometimes were not able to eat any of it at all. The sisters would
complain about a number of issues with the food that we were given.
In prison, every jumu’ah, all the sisters would be collected by officers and taken to
a room in the church that was specifically for Muslims- known by us as our prayer room. I remember one jumu’ah, during Ramadan, a sister gave a speech
which moved us all. She taught us about gratitude and that we should be happy
that Allah had blessed us with food in the first place. Subhan Allah. She was
right. We were truly blessed. There are people in the world who are stricken
with poverty and do not even have clean water to drink. Yet there are still
people in the world that choose to fast, despite their poor circumstances.
This talk really affected us all... to the point that all of us sisters decided to take a u-turn.
Since that day, none of us made a single complaint about the food Allah had
blessed us with. If anyone would ask any of the sisters about whether they had liked their iftar
yesterday, the sister would respond saying “alhamdulillah” with a big smile on
her face.
Wallahi, since that day, for every iftar for the rest of Ramadan, we received delicious, filling food. Wallahi I was amazed. Subhan Allah.
[Surah Ibrahim 14:7]
I swear by Allah, this is true. I wanted to share this
experience in hopes that we all start to appreciate the blessings we have. If
we are unhappy with the lack of something in our life, let’s be thankful to
Allah that we have something in the first place. Perhaps by that sincere
gratitude, Allah will increase us in what we thought we had a lack of.
Alhamdulillah for everything.