Ramadhan, Bazar Ramadhan and ...

Salam,
well, most of us already know the 'hikmah' behind ramadhan. Physically it help us to improve our health, spiritually ramadhan teach us to become more closer to GOD. Am sure you are much better than me to explain all the surah/hadith about ramadhan hence am not going to discuss about that.

Ramadhan-Bazar Ramadhan.
Am not sure about another place around the world, but in Malaysia Bazar Ramadhan is a must. A ramadhan without Bazar Ramadhan is like eating ketupat pulut without rendang tok. From one perspective Bazar Ramadhan bring lots of benefits. Bazar Ramadhan provide a place for the part-time entreperneur to earn extra income (much much better rather than begging on the street), bazar ramadhan is very handful for the 'overworked private/public worker', it provide an alternatives to get something to eat during iftar without having to cook at home after working the whole day.

However, there are also some negative elements about Bazar ramadhan. First, I remember my ustaz told me that fasting teach us to feel the hardship faced by the poor. But, here in Bazar Ramadhan we tend to spent lots of money buying lots of food due to our weaknesses in controlling our 'nafsu makan'. Even myself also would not be able to resist the temptation of ayam percik, air bandung soya ais, bihun goreng etc etc, in average I used to spent RM10 on each visit to Bazar Ramadhan which eventually most of the food were thrown in the bins afterward. What a waste. So there you are..., we torture ourself of not eating and drinking the whole day, we really behave during ramadhan, we control our anger, we did not swear during ramadhan..in brief we did all the noble act during ramadhan, but all these 'heaven reward' acts easily dissappear when we visit Bazar Ramadhan. Am not saying that you shouldn't visit and buy food from Bazar Ramadhan, but then this are the most likely consequences you will get from visiting Bazar Ramadhan. Moreover when we talk about the very unreasonable price of food let alone the terrible taste of the food which we will certainly swear the seller of his/her terrible food. Gone are the pahala puasa!

Here in Scotland there are no Bazar Ramadhan, well I do miss the Bazar Ramadhan back home. However, I think without Bazar Ramadhan we will be able to avoid all the above negative elements of bazar ramadhan. Am not saying that my fasting here is much better than fasting in Malaysia but at least I do have the chances of reflecting what a waste fasting the whole day getting all the pahala which later on we turn it into bala after a short visit to bazar ramadhan. Salam.