My Ramadhan Experience in the Mountain Kingdom

Lesotho, Southern Africa

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

I Bear Witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger

When I decided to leave America as a Community Health and Economics Development volunteer in Africa, I envisioned that I might live in a Muslim country.  One where I would hear the call to prayer each morning, meet and mingle with Muslimah’s daily, and dress in beautifully colored garments.  This was not to be my fate. 

It is said that if you don’t overcome a trial, you are bound to repeat it.

In America, I struggled through many aspects of my conversion (reversion) to Islam due to perceived or actual pressures of work, family, friends, believers, and my own inability to defend the faith that I had chosen as a way of life.  Little did I know that I was destined to repeat this trial in my new home abroad, Lesotho, Africa. 

Lesotho is the small country near the tip of the continent, a country that is less than one percent Muslim.  Where tensions and hostilities among different sects of Christianity are so pervasive that in many areas, they refuse to work with each other; even to their own detriment.  Life as a Black Muslim would not, and has not been easy.  However, as I continue to face this and other challenges as a Muslim woman, both here and in America, I have come to know that these trials not only increase my faith, but also my belief in the oneness of God.

As I began my fast, I was delighted that I had found a way to listen to the replay of the Ramadan Prayer line each day.  It became my lifeline, my connection to Muslims around the world.  I too, like the Sister from the Virgin Islands, felt alone without it.  I would awake each morning and play the replay of the previous days recording, while preparing a meal and coffee.  Many days I hoped that Sis. Nisa Islam Muhammad would start from the bottom, when announcing countries with the greatest number of listener's to the broadcast.  For I was sure that Lesotho would be at the top of that list with 1.

During Ramadhan I experienced illness and I also had to travel.  Travel and sickness are two of the ways permitted in the Holy Qur’an where fasting is not required.  But Bro. Akbar’s words resonated with me, “do not look for an excuse not to fast.”  So I did not use these challenges as excuses, but monitored my condition and with the help of Allah, allowed my body to dictate my actions.  I thank Allah that my fast continued.

My travels took me to a village more remote than the one in which I now call home.  There I would once again reunite with my village family.  The same family that took care of me during my first 3 months in country.  The family who now calls me “Our first born from America.”  I knew they would welcome me back with open arms and …with food. 

One of the greatest gifts that a village family can offer is the gift of food; and it is an even greater insult to reject a gift that is so precious, so scarce.  How would I communicate in my limited Sesotho, the idea of fasting for 30 days during the day light hours?   I had packed fruits for my morning meals and instant noodles for my nightly meals.  In additional to as much water that I could drink before dawn, I wondered, will this sustain me?  Or would I come crawling into the kitchen in the middle of the night begging for the traditional papa and moroho?  Staples in the life of the Basotho.

When I arrived at the home of my host family, there were 2 new family members living at or near the main house.  Both proved to be blessings.  The first was a host sister whom I had never met, Mapaseka.  Mapaseka speaks English well enough to translate.  She will be attending university next semester.  The second was Lipuo (pronounced Dipuo), the Muslim sister of my Christian host father. Imagine that!  

In the year that I have lived in Lesotho, Lipuo is the first Muslim that I have formally met.  She traveled from South Africa to attend a funeral, a common occurrence in Lesotho.  As Mapaseka translated what I was saying, Lipuo explained to my host family in the local language the fast of Ramadhan; and in such a way that my host mother expressed her understanding with a smile, and a bow.  Lipuo also told me where I could buy halaal meats!   Another blessing.

It is also said that there are no coincidences.

As I prepare for vacation, to Safari in the Serengeti with members of my family, I am both excited and renewed.  I will pursue business opportunities in the Muslim country of Tanzania, and discover more about Islamic history in the Christian country of Ethiopia.  A country that sheltered Muslims during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). 

In’shaallah I will return to the United States in August 2014.  Through prayer, fasting, reading the Holy Qur’an from cover to cover, and listening to Muslims from around the world share their knowledge; this Ramadhan has given me strength, determination, and a greater resolve to continue to strive in the way of Islam. 

I am also comforted and encouraged by the closing words of the prayer line as spoken by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan enjoining us to unity and to patience, and reminding us that we are students of Islam from the cradle to the grave.

As-Salaam Alaikum