PENANG, August 2013 - Three foreign students at Universiti Sains Malaysia longed to celebrate the coming Hari Raya Aidil Fitri with their respective families with only Mohammed Thaif being able to fly home this 4 August.

The other two – Elham Farsi from Iran and Sami Abdulla Mohsen, Yemen – will remain in Malaysia. Farsi has plans to celebrate with her friends in Perlis while Sami planned to celebrate his Hari Raya with friends for the third consecutive year.

Sami, 29, a new USM PhD student in Electrical and Electronics Engineering came from a family of a dozen siblings, missed eating with his entire family from a common plate heaped with festive delicacies.

“The Hari Raya celebration in my hometown in Ta’izz lasts about two weeks,” he said, explaining that Ramadan ends with morning prayers in the mosque.

“We would then greet everyone and invite them to our house to receive barakah (blessings or Divine Grace),” Sami added. “Being a small town, we preferred to walk home, greeting everyone with a ‘Salem’.”

Last year, he went to Putrajaya with his friends during the first day of the Raya and visited Prime Minister Y.A.B. Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Haji Abdul Razak’s open house. Despite having met the Prime Minister and other dignitaries on that day, he still missed his family in Yemen.

Elham Farsi, a 27-year-old Iranian, is pursuing her PhD in pharmaceutical sciences which she expected to graduate in 2017.

Eldest of five siblings, Farsi, too, missed her family in Shiraz and the going for morning prayers at seven on Raya morning before visiting grandparents and close relatives in a one-day celebration.

“This year I would be celebrating the Hari Raya with my friends in Perlis,” she said. “However, with the Islamic practices in Malaysia, it helped ease the homesickness during such celebrations.”

Mohammed Thaif, 24, from Bangalore, India, has been in Malaysia for the past two years, finishing his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in April next year.

“I had celebrated the Lesser Eid with my family in Bangalore, a number of times but this year I am going home on 4 August to celebrate Hari Raya,” he said, hardly able to conceal his excitement.

Mohammed Thaif said that although Hari Raya is a one-day celebration, the city would be bustling with shoppers and kids hunting for Raya clothes before then.

“On Raya morning, we would have a special breakfast before prayers at the mosque with relatives,” he said. “We then visited my uncle’s house to celebrate, go to the beach, and later had dinner to conclude the hectic day.” - Text/Photographs: Yong Check Yoon