9 questions on Ramadan you have been too embarrassed to ask

Ramadan is the Muslim holy month, and many of the world’s estimated 1.9 billion Muslims will observe it in some kind.

Which implies there is a good probability you — or a buddy, a coworker, a neighbor, your kid’s instructor — might be celebrating, fasting, and doing all types of different actions which might be distinctive to the holy month.

However what’s Ramadan, precisely? What’s the take care of fasting? And is there something particular you need to do or say if you’re round Muslim mates and acquaintances throughout Ramadan?

Don’t fear, we have you lined: Listed here are probably the most fundamental solutions to probably the most fundamental questions on Ramadan.

1) What’s Ramadan really about?

Ramadan is probably the most sacred month of the yr for Muslims — the Prophet Mohammed reportedly stated, “When the month of Ramadan begins, the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of hell are closed and the devils are chained.”

Muslims imagine it was throughout this month that God revealed the primary verses of the Quran, Islam’s sacred textual content, to Mohammed, on an evening generally known as “The Evening of Energy” (or Laylat al-Qadr in Arabic).

Throughout all the month of Ramadan, Muslims quick daily from daybreak to sundown. It’s meant to be a time of religious self-discipline — of deep contemplation of 1’s relationship with God, additional prayer, elevated charity and generosity, and intense examine of the Quran.

But when that makes it sound tremendous critical and boring, it is actually not. It is a time of celebration and pleasure, to be spent with family members. On the finish of Ramadan there’s a giant three-day celebration known as Eid al-Fitr, or the Competition of the Breaking of the Quick.

It is form of just like the Muslim model of Christmas, within the sense that it is a spiritual vacation the place everybody comes collectively for large meals with household and mates, exchanges presents, and usually has a beautiful time.

2) How does fasting work?

Fasting throughout Ramadan is among the 5 pillars — or duties — of Islam, together with the testimony of religion, prayer, charitable giving, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims are required to participate yearly, although there are particular dispensations for individuals who are sick, pregnant or nursing, menstruating, or touring, and for younger kids and the aged.

The follow of fasting serves a number of religious and social functions: to remind you of your human frailty and your dependence on God for sustenance, to indicate you what it feels wish to be hungry and thirsty so you’re feeling compassion for (and an obligation to assist) the poor and needy, and to scale back the distractions in life so you possibly can extra clearly focus in your relationship with God.

Throughout Ramadan, Muslims abstain from consuming any meals, ingesting any liquids, smoking cigarettes, and interesting in any sexual exercise, from daybreak to sundown. That features taking remedy (even for those who swallow a capsule dry, with out ingesting any water). Chewing gum can be prohibited (although I did not discover that one out till about midway by my first Ramadan after changing — oops).

Doing any of these issues “invalidates” your quick for the day, and also you simply begin over the subsequent day. To make up for days you did not quick, you possibly can both quick later within the yr (both abruptly or a day right here and there) or present a meal to a needy particular person for every day you missed.

Muslims are additionally purported to attempt to curb destructive ideas and feelings like jealousy and anger, and even lesser issues like swearing, complaining, and gossiping, throughout the month. Some folks might also select to surrender or restrict actions like listening to music and watching tv, typically in favor of listening to recitations of the Quran.

3) What’s a typical day like throughout Ramadan?

Throughout Ramadan, Muslims get up properly earlier than daybreak to eat the primary meal of the day, which has to final till sundown. This implies consuming numerous high-protein meals and ingesting as a lot water as doable proper up till daybreak, after which you’ll’t eat or drink something.

At daybreak, we carry out the morning prayer. Because it’s often nonetheless fairly early, many return to sleep for a bit earlier than waking up once more to prepare for the day (I definitely do).

Muslims usually are not purported to keep away from work or faculty or some other regular duties throughout the day simply because we’re fasting. In lots of Muslim international locations, nonetheless, companies and faculties might cut back their hours throughout the day or shut completely. For probably the most half, although, Muslims go about their each day enterprise as we usually would, regardless of not having the ability to eat or drink something the entire day.

When the night name to prayer is lastly made (or when the alarm in your cellphone’s Muslim prayer app goes off), we break the day’s quick with a lightweight meal — actually extra of a snack — known as an iftar (actually “breakfast”), earlier than performing the night prayer. Many individuals additionally go to the mosque for the night prayer, adopted by a particular prayer that’s solely recited throughout Ramadan.

Robin Utrecht/SOPA Photos/LightRocket by way of Getty Photos

Mahmud Hams/AFP by way of Getty Photos

That is often adopted by a bigger meal a bit later within the night, which is usually shared with household and mates in each other’s houses all through the month. Then it is off to mattress for a number of hours of sleep earlier than it is time to get up and begin yet again.

(Word: There are good causes for less than having a small snack to interrupt your quick earlier than performing the night prayer after which consuming an even bigger meal later. Muslim prayers contain plenty of motion — bending over, prostrating on the bottom, standing up, and so on. Doing all that bodily exercise on a full abdomen after not having eaten for 15 hours is a recipe for catastrophe. Simply belief me on this one.)

Regardless of the hardship of fasting for an entire month, most Muslims (myself included) really sit up for Ramadan and are just a little unhappy when it’s over. There’s simply one thing actually particular about understanding that tens of hundreds of thousands of your fellow Muslims around the globe are experiencing the identical starvation pangs, dry mouth, and dizzy spells that you’re, and that we’re all in it collectively.

4) So do you reduce weight throughout Ramadan?

A few of you could be considering, “Wow, that appears like an effective way to reduce weight! I will attempt it!” However actually, Ramadan is definitely infamous for occasionally inflicting weight acquire. That is as a result of consuming massive meals tremendous early within the morning and late at evening with an extended interval of low exercise bordering on lethargy in between can wreak havoc in your metabolism.

One meta-analysis of scientific research on the consequences of Ramadan fasting on physique weight discovered that “[w]eight adjustments throughout Ramadan have been comparatively small and principally reversed after Ramadan, regularly returning to pre-Ramadan standing. Ramadan supplies a possibility to reduce weight, however structured and constant life-style modifications are crucial to attain lasting weight reduction.” [Italics mine.]

So similar to with some other excessive weight-reduction plan plan, you could lose a number of kilos, however except you really make “structured and constant life-style modifications,” you are in all probability not going to see main, lasting outcomes.

5) Why do the dates of Ramadan change yearly?

For spiritual issues, Muslims comply with a lunar calendar — that’s, one based mostly on the phases of the moon — whose 12 months add as much as roughly 354 days. That is 11 days shorter than the 12 months of the usual Gregorian calendar. Subsequently, the Islamic lunar calendar strikes backward roughly 11 days every year in relation to the common Gregorian calendar.

In order that signifies that the primary day of the month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, strikes backward by about 11 days every year.

This has a big impression on how folks expertise Ramadan from yr to yr. When Ramadan falls within the winter, it is a lot simpler to quick: the times are shorter, which suggests you do not have to quick as lengthy, and it is colder out, so not having the ability to drink water all day is not as massive of a deal since you’re not sweating as a lot.

Conversely, when Ramadan falls in the summertime, fasting may be brutal. In lots of Muslim international locations within the Center East and Africa, summer time temperatures can attain ranges often reserved for the deepest bowels of hell.

And in some Northern European international locations akin to Iceland, Norway, and Sweden (the place, sure, there are Muslims), fasting can final a mean of 20 hours or extra in the summertime. (And in a number of locations above the Arctic Circle, the solar by no means really units in the summertime. In these circumstances, Muslim spiritual authorities have decreed that Muslims can both quick together with the closest Muslim nation or quick together with Mecca, Saudi Arabia.)

6) Okay, however why is there at all times confusion yearly about precisely what day Ramadan begins on?

There is a motive “Ramadan begin date” is among the most-searched phrases each single yr. That is as a result of Muslims around the globe have no idea when precisely Ramadan is definitely supposed to start out. In case you Google it, you may see there’s just a little disclaimer beneath Google’s reply that claims “Dates might range”:

That additionally has to do with the moon — in addition to disagreements about science, historical past, and custom, plus a little bit of geopolitical rivalry.

The start of every new month within the Islamic calendar begins on the brand new moon. Which implies the month of Ramadan begins on the brand new moon. Easy sufficient, proper?

Flawed.

If it has been some time since your highschool astronomy class, here is a reminder of what the phases of the moon seem like:

Getty Photos/iStockphoto

Again in Mohammed’s day, in sixth-century Arabia, astronomical calculations weren’t as exact as they’re right this moment, so folks glided by what they may see with the bare eye.

Because the new moon is not really tremendous seen within the evening sky (as you possibly can see above), Muslims historically waited to start out fasting till the small sliver of crescent moon turned seen. There’s even a saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammed about ready to start out the quick till you see the crescent. (Some folks assume this is the reason the star and crescent is the image of Islam, however the crescent was used as an emblem lengthy earlier than Islam.)

This methodology was a bit messy, although, since issues like clouds or simply the issue of recognizing the moon in some areas typically led to completely different teams beginning their quick on separate days, even throughout the identical nation. Every group, village, and even mosque throughout the village may ship its personal man out to search for the crescent, with rival teams arguing over whether or not the opposite man actually noticed it.

At present, nonetheless, now we have exact scientific calculations that inform us precisely when the brand new moon begins, and we need not wait till somebody spots a tiny crescent within the sky. (In truth, in accordance with the Oxford Dictionary of Islam, “The necessity to decide the exact look of the hilal [crescent moon] was one of many inducements for Muslim students to review astronomy.”)

So, downside solved! Besides that some Muslim students imagine we must always nonetheless wait till the slight crescent moon is seen within the evening sky as a result of that is what Mohammed stated to do and that is the way in which we have at all times achieved it.

Others argue that Islam has a powerful custom of motive, information, and science, and that if Mohammed have been round right this moment, he’d select the extra exact scientific calculations over sending the man on the mosque with the perfect eyesight exterior to squint on the evening sky.

To make issues much more enjoyable, some argue that the entire world ought to simply comply with the official moon-sighting decrees of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and the situation of its holiest websites.

However not everybody thinks that is such a swell thought — particularly rival international locations like Pakistan and Iran, which balk on the thought of treating Saudi Arabia as the last word authority on something having to do with Islam.

All which means every year, Muslims around the globe get to expertise the pleasant lunacy of “moon-sighting combating.” It is such a well-known characteristic of Ramadan that there are memes about it:

7) Are there variations between how Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims observe Ramadan?

For probably the most half, no. Each Sunni and Shia Muslims quick throughout Ramadan. However there are some minor variations — as an example, Sunnis break their each day quick at sundown, when the solar is now not seen on the horizon (however there’s nonetheless mild within the sky), whereas Shia wait till the redness of the setting solar has utterly vanished and the sky is completely darkish.

Shia additionally have fun a further vacation throughout the month of Ramadan that Sunnis don’t. For 3 days — the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first days of Ramadan — Shia commemorate the martyrdom of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed who was each the revered fourth caliph of Sunni Islam and the primary “authentic” imam (chief) of Shia Islam.

Ali was assassinated within the fierce civil wars that erupted following the loss of life of Mohammed over who ought to lead the Muslim group in his stead. On the nineteenth day of the month of Ramadan, whereas Ali was worshipping at a mosque in Kufa, Iraq, an murderer from a bunch of rebels who opposed his management fatally struck him with a poisoned sword. Ali died two days later.

Ali is a vastly necessary determine in Shia Islam. His tomb in close by Najaf, Iraq, is the third-holiest website in Shia Islam, and hundreds of thousands of Shia make a pilgrimage there yearly. Though Sunnis revere Ali as one of many 4 “rightly guided” caliphs who dominated after Mohammed’s loss of life, they don’t commemorate his loss of life or make a pilgrimage to his tomb.

Getty Photos/iStockphoto

8) What can I do to be respectful of my Muslim mates throughout Ramadan?

In some Muslim international locations, it’s a crime to eat and drink in public throughout the day within the month of Ramadan, even for those who’re not Muslim.

In fact, this isn’t the case in america, the place we take pleasure in freedom of (and freedom from) faith. And most American Muslims, myself included, do not count on the non-Muslims round us to transform their conduct to accommodate our spiritual quick throughout Ramadan.

I’ve had mates and coworkers who’ve chosen to quick together with me out of solidarity (or simply as a result of it appears “enjoyable”), and that was candy of them, however it’s not one thing I ever count on folks to do. (Plus, they often final about three days earlier than they determine solidarity is overrated and being thirsty for 15 hours will not be remotely “enjoyable.”)

All that stated, there are issues you are able to do, and never do, to make issues just a little simpler for mates or colleagues who occur to be fasting for Ramadan. In case you share an workplace with somebody fasting, perhaps eat your scrumptious, juicy cheeseburger within the workplace break room quite than at your desk, the place your poor, struggling Muslim coworkers should scent it and salivate (in the event that they even have sufficient moisture left of their our bodies to salivate at that time).

Attempt to keep in mind to not provide them a chew or a sip of what you are consuming, as a result of it is typically arduous for us to keep in mind that we’re fasting and simple to absentmindedly settle for and eat that Lay’s potato chip you simply provided us. However for those who do, it is okay. We’re not going to get mad or be offended (except you are doing it on function, through which case, what’s mistaken with you?).

In case you’re having a cocktail party and also you wish to invite your Muslim mates, attempt to schedule it after sundown to allow them to eat. Muslims do not drink alcohol or eat pork, however we often do not thoughts being round it. (Opposite to well-liked perception, we’re not afraid of or allergic to pork; we simply do not eat it. It isn’t like we’re vampires and pork is garlic.) However do tell us if there’s alcohol or pork in one thing so we do not unintentionally eat it.

If you wish to want your Muslim mates or acquaintances a contented Ramadan or pleased Eid al-Fitr, you are welcome to only say, “Comfortable Ramadan!” or “Comfortable Eid!” That is not offensive or something. However if you wish to present them you made an effort to study extra about their faith, the usual greetings are “Ramadan/Eid kareem” (which suggests “have a beneficiant Ramadan/Eid”) or “Ramadan/Eid mubarak” (which suggests “have a blessed Ramadan/Eid”).

Even one thing so simple as studying a kind of expressions and saying it with a smile to your Muslim mates will go a good distance towards making them really feel comfy and welcome.

9) So for those who’re not purported to get indignant or complain or gossip throughout Ramadan, how come terror assaults by teams like ISIS and al-Qaeda typically spike throughout Ramadan?

As a result of terrorists are assholes.

Replace, March 22, 2023: This story was initially revealed in 2017 and has been up to date with new dates, and to take away outdated references.

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