Ramadan, which starts this weekend, is for many Muslims the high point of the year. In prior years, we have explained how Ramadan is More than Just Fasting and the tremendous emphasis on Charitable Giving globally. But rather than write informationally this year, we thought we would share with you some personal takes. 

Below, four wonderful Muslims known to Encounter share their own perspective on what the month is like. We asked each of them the same three questions – What do they like best about the month? Do they find it hard? And do they have any favourite memories? As for the four folks, we think you will like them a lot.

Okay, let’s hear from them!

(Note: when our speakers use Arabic words, these words are italicized and lightly explained in brackets. A fuller explanation is in the glossary at the bottom of this page.)

 

Sarah Mushtaq

 

What do you like best about Ramadan?

My favourite part is the community aspect. It always ends up being a month where you see people you see regularly but then you see people you don’t see everyday. It’s a great opportunity to get together, have iftar together (iftar is the daily meal to break the fast), go to the mosque together, late night hangouts after taraweeh (late optional prayers), if there’s a qiyam session (prayers in the middle of the night) and then having sahoor (the pre-dawn meal) together. It’s an exhausting month for sure but it’s very invigorating to be around community, to be around people and know that everyone’s doing it together. There’s real beauty in that. 

 

Is it hard?

This one is tough to answer. Cause yes it is. But not hard in a way that means you don’t want to do it. There are many things that we enjoy and that we like that are difficult and Ramadan is no different. What’s a bit different is that spiritual drive cause you’re doing it for a bigger purpose. Then having community support. Knowing the family and community are all participating, that camaraderie makes it easier. For folks who are isolated where they lack family and community around them, it can be extremely difficult. 

Human bodies are incredibly resilient so planning for Ramadan and keeping up with things is still doable. I pay attention to still eat well, get my protein, I drink so much at night. I joke I drink more during Ramadan than the rest of the year cause of my fear of being thirsty. Managing that is difficult but if you plan accordingly, it’s still difficult but it is doable. There’s a personal element too. For some, fasting is very, very difficult and others can fast quite easily.

I still manage to go to work, to go to the gym, to go to the mosque, to go out for iftars with family and friends. We get through it. The month flies by.

 

Do you have any favourite memories?

Some of my favourite memories are definitely – this will sound funny – was when Ramadan was is in the summer because I was in school, both high school and undergrad. Having that flexible schedule made it fun. We slept all day, stayed up all night, doing activities with friends, having iftars with friends and family. After taraweeh, we’d do a Tim Hortons run late in the night and it was filled with Muslims. You can see the growth of the community since then because now there’s so many Middle Eastern and South Asian cafes and restaurants and they flip their schedule and stay open until sahoor (the pre-dawn meal). 

Fasting was hard in summer, the days were very long, but the long days and short nights made for many fond memories. Now I’m in the stage where everyone’s an adult and we have adult responsibilities. Everyone has their own families and cannot do the frolic at 2am so easily. 

Dearborn, Michigan, just across the border, has the sahoor festival. At night, vendors are open, etc. They do this in Houston and probably some other areas. Mimics what happens overseas cause overseas they flip the schedule and stay open all night. Even business schedules shift. In North America, we have to manage two identities. Here, if people want to do a sahoor festival, they go on Friday or Saturday to get back on schedule by Monday.

 

Gul Mohammad

 

 

What do you like best about Ramadan?

For me, it’s a big faith thing. Reestablishing your connection to your faith. Going back to the grassroots of things. Get back to praying five times a day. The whole focus is praying, fasting, reading the Quran. It’s like a reminder for the rest of the year of how things are supposed to be.

Something personally that I really enjoy is the family connection. We break fast together.  A lot of family gatherings happen and you look forward to Eid at the end of the month. We have a lot of family parties. January and February were totally dead but we have so much lined up for March already with cousins, parents, siblings, etc.

It’s also a good way for me to show my colleagues what Islam is all about. They ask a lot of questions. The last 4-5 years I’ve had someone say I’m going to fast with you. Last year, a colleague fasted the whole month. They’re not Muslim. He found the no water part hard! (laughter). I get lots of questions about it too and it’s nice to introduce people to this is what Islam is all about. 

 

Is Ramadan hard?

It’s hard the first 3-5 days. But we’re lucky to be fasting in Canada. It’s cold. You’re not exerting yourself a lot outside cause you’re in your car. In Pakistan or India or Egypt, it’s much harder. You’re up early, you walk a lot and it’s hot. 

So for me, it’s not that hard. It is hard to figure out my prayer within the workday but I’m lucky enough to work with people who will give me the time. But physically or emotionally it’s not bad. Only 13 hours this month.

Even in July, it’s still Canada. How bad can it be? There’s air conditioning everywhere. I’ve fasted in Pakistan and in Dubai and you feel it. It’s blistering hot. You need water. You walk around a lot.

 

Do you have a favourite memory?

Me and my siblings, we reminiscence about growing up and waking up in the morning at sahoor time (pre-dawn meal), 4 or 5 am, it was so exciting for us. We’d be helping mom in the kitchen to prepare and we’d be running around the kitchen even though it was 4am, running around, laughing. It felt easy. And you wake up to that smell of mom making eggs or roti and then you’re going in and helping mom. It was a really nice way to connect as siblings. In Pakistan, all the cousins lived next door so you’d have 10-12 kids running around in the morning and helping out mom. Things felt so close there whereas in Canada it does feel more isolated. 

 

Kameeza Ally

 

What do you like best about Ramadan?

It’s a time of community. A time where if you’re busy and lack time for anyone else, during Ramadan we’re able to reflect more and feel empathy for others. And I love that. Being a wife of Imran (an imam) and a mother of a child with special needs, I’m always busy. As a family, we put the community first because the community needs us. Ramadan forces me to put myself first a little bit, take time out myself to connect with God almighty to build a stronger bond. It sounds a little selfish but it makes me put myself first just a little to strengthen my connection with Allah.

 

Is it hard?

It’s absolutely not. Our prophet, peace be upon him, said the ummah (community) is like one body. When one part is hurting, the whole body is hurting. In Ramadan, you have this special…I can’t explain it even if I try…there is this special feeling of togetherness. You know you’re not the only one fasting. You can feel this entire ummah fasting. You are fasting together, breaking the fasting together at the same time everywhere in the world, we’re doing this as one. There’s a comfort in that. We’re reflecting on our actions and we think too of our brothers and sisters in the world who are also hungry, not from fasting, but because they lack food. We are purposely fasting to please Allah but there are people who are suffering and who lack food and lack water. The fasting brings us closer to them to contemplate what they deal with all the time. So it’s not at all hard. It’s easy and brings a special feeling for us.

Do you have any favourite memories?

There are too many! I can’t choose one but I can choose two (laughs). Growing up, my brothers and cousins going to the mosque in the evenings to break fast. There was more playing than praying happening growing up. As kids we were always getting into trouble at the masjid (mosque).

A second memory is during the pandemic. For my husband, Imran, being an imam, he serves the community. During Ramadan, it is the worst for getting to see him. We don’t see him at all. He is at the mosque. He is serving. As a family, we take a back seat. For the past two decades, he has never once been home to break the fast. During the pandemic, it was the first time we had him at home to break fast every day and it was one of the best Ramadans we’ve ever had. We could sit down together and pray and break the fast. It was very simple but beautiful because we were all together. It’s one of my favourite memories of Ramadan.

 

Irshad Osman

 

What do you like best about Ramadan

Ramadan for me is about cleansing. I’m cleansing my thoughts, my words, taking stock of what’s happening inside this body in terms of thoughts, words, behaviours, actions I take and in terms of relationships. In the eleven months, that gets tainted. Sincerity (ikhlas) is a key value in Islam that means to do everything for the sake of God. Our thoughts should be unadultered, solely for God. 

Purification for me, the cleansing is how have my thoughts been the past eleven months and how am I going to change that going forward?. A companion went to the Prophet and said, “I like to dress nicely, is that bad?” He was told, no, it’s not bad. But what is bad is when wearing something nice leads you to judge others. Or feeling arrogant. Regardless of how hard we try, we all do these things. In Ramadan I ask a lot of forgiveness from people. From God, but from my children and my wife too.

Ramadan comes for me to cleanse myself. It’s not foremost about food. It’s about transformation.

 

Is it hard?

For me it’s not hard to tell you the truth. Since I was 4 years old in Sri Lanka, we would start with maybe half a day. By 5 we were fasting the whole day. It became much easier when I moved out of Sri Lanka. In Holland (where I first moved) or here in Canada, it’s never that hard cause sometimes its winter and even in summer, there’s air conditioning. In Sir Lanka, sometimes it is really hot and humid. It’s not humid here. I never get thirsty the same way here. In Bahrain, it was really hard. Thirst is the hardest part, not the hunger.

The hard is that I feel guilty if I cannot do all the worship. Maybe I get too hot or tired and I miss something I feel I should have done.

 

Do you have any favourite memories?

When I was 5 yrs old, I was raised by my uncle. He gave me 1 rupee (about half a Cdn penny) for each day of fasting. There were 30 days of fasting. He gave me 30 rupees and took me to the tailor. Back then, you take cloth to the tailor and get clothes made by the tailor. He stitched for me a shirt, long sleeve. I still always think of that shirt.

 

If you know someone marking the month, wish them Ramadan Mubarak (a blessed month). If you work with them, consider how they will have more energy often earlier in the day then later when planning your meetings, etc. Ask how you can be sensitive.

 

Glossary

Iftar is the meal every day that breaks the fast

Iklas means sincerity and in Muslim context means doing things for God.

Masjid means mosque

Qiyam is the late night prayer during the last third of the night (often at 2 or 3am at this time of the year). Mosques will hold these during Ramadan. People come for iftar, stay for the taraweeh prayers a bit later, then some will stay at the mosque for activities. Some then stay later for the qiyam prayers. In between people visit, activities might be set up and you can stay until sahoor, the pre-dawn meal. Then you go home and sleep during the day. 

Sahoor is the pre-dawn meal, eaten in anticipation of fasting through the whole day.

Taraweeh are optional night prayers. Prayers are interspersed with readings of the Qur’an.

Ummah is the Muslim community. Quite beautifully, it stems from the word “umm” which means mother.