Munggahan & 1st day of Ramadan

The thing that is quite close to my mind when facing the month of Ramadan is munggahan. I don't know how to say it in English though. Well it's just basically kind of preparation in the first day of holy month - Ramadan. We Indonesian Muslims have sort of unique thing binded in our society. Every part of this country has different name to call Munggahan though. As I live in the province where Sundanese language is commonly spoken, we call it as munggahan meaning the ascending. If I am not wrong, Javanese people also share the same name. Munggahan means we go up or upgrade ourselves to be much better people than ever before.

On Munggahan day we usually travel home to meet our family. Or if we can't, we may text, call or just email them. This year thankfully I've got a chance to meet my family directly. This meeting in munggahan is simply a way of us in expressing our apology as well as a way of us in giving forgiveness to all of them. To our friends, we usually do the same. Sending SMS is the best way – cheaper and a lot faster. Giving and asking for forgiveness are the must-do thing before Ramadan begins as we human are tend to be sinful. No one is free from mistakes or error so that every single Muslim has to both ask and give forgiveness.

In this preparation, some of us usually also buy some things such as produces, dates and maybe new clothes. As we may see in market such as Tanah Abang and Pasar Baru, many people flock buying their stuff. While at the same time many sellers also gain much more profit than usually they do. However, in our teaching there is no need to wear or buy new cloth in Ramadan. It is just actually our behavior or habit. Nonetheless, I'd say it's not really a good habit readers, I mean we'd better save our cash or donate to those who are needy instead of quenching our thirst or greediness to buy new thing.

In Ramadan this year, I started making Taraweeh prayer in the evening. Tararaweeh is a special sunnah prayer we do only in Ramadan month. We can never do this in other months, just in Ramadan. The rewards that Allah has promised to those who perform Taraweeh in Ramadan is indeed multiplied. I can't mention the precise thing though. I myself did go to Masjid Agung Cisewu to perform this prayer. We did Taraweeh after we performed Isha prayer and had short speech beforehand.

The first speech or kultum (7 minutes speech) at my mosque was performed by the chief of our mosque. He welcomed the jamaah and announced several things we needed to noticed. Something that we were quite eager to hear then was the certainty of the first day of fasting. It happened to us to wait the formal dissemination from government of ours since they somehow were not able to see hilal to determine the first day of Ramadan. Wanna know what hilal is? Please ask Professor Google or Doctor Wiki :)

The kultum speaker of the first day of Ramadan was Mr. Someone (I forgot this name). The 1st day of Ramadan means the 2nd speech and the 2nd taraweeh. The speaker said that there are 5 things that can reduce the reward of our fasting. Two of them are making a lie and doing ghibah. Unfortunately I forgot the other three. Well, from now on until the end of Ramadan I'll try my best to sum up the speech of Taraweeh. I hope I'll be able to be commitment to it. Well, the first day of Ramadan ran very well anyway. I went to and fro to meet relatives and fixed several things I pretty much do. Tomorrow is the second day of Ramadan, you'll see the excerpt of Taraweeh on the forthcoming posting. Have a blessed Ramadan respected brothers and sisters :)