First Day Of Ramadan In Ile Ife 2018

By Sodiq Lawal

Ile Ife is an ancient city of Yoruba which links traveling vehicles to the mainly road leading to Iwo, and subsequently several towns in Osun State. In this town, culture and tradition are well respected by everyone.

The city sounds sweet in the mouths of the elders and the young ones. It is with a certain, deliberate thoughtfulness that could not be found in the way other cities and towns are pronounced especially with its cultural heritage.

Despite the love of culture and tradition, on Thursday, which was the first day of Ramadan, the gate of most shrines were locked, only few attend to in beer pallor, the area boys in Iremo roads have fled… Oh, I thought for a while, what causes all these within a day? A friend immediately trashed my anxiety, It is “Ramadan”.

Every mosque in Ile Ife was  full of  people within the first day of Ramadan. Life goes on with serenity, and other than the frequent gentle. The people have sat down quietly in all  mosques, some who were not opportune to be in the mosque were seen carrying and reading Quran all around.

The sun seems well equipped for that day and by 1pm, it had already started to emit strong heat. At the various mosques which people of different religion turned out, people outside the mosque feel the suffocating heat, and to temper the tepidness, they turned any paper they see to hand fan.

Love and peace  bestowed on the ancient city. The endowment is extended to non living objects with Ramadan leading in the row.  The uniqueness is rare. Everyone keeps doing charity. Even the beggars at Sabo appreciated their Creator for the exorbitant gift given to them by the people.

Traders in their large numbers noted the rate at which they sold their goods as incomparable to other days. The turnout of both traders and buyers were so much at Sabo market, Oja Ijio,  Oja tuntun and others.

The Chief Imam of Ife, Shaykh Abd Samii Abd Hamid had admonished believers to cultivate good virtues during this period such as dedication to Solaat, sadaqat and refraining from idle talk.

Muslims are expected to be of good character and be cautioned of disbelief, abusing the religion, and evil interaction with people, because fasting requests orientation to the hearts.

It is of great loss for a fasting person to be indulging in vain talk, even if it is for fun, lest you waste your fast.

When the darkness of night had descended on Ile Ife in the first day of Ramadan, shops, cars and motorcycles could be heard plying the road. Living venue, people were eating, children were playing around various environment and people were full of  laughter and joy on the first day of Ramadan.