Experiencing Ramadan can be rewarding
IN Malaysia, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, most of the nonMuslims experience a culture that observes customs many would have otherwise been oblivious to.
This is most obvious every Ramadan when our Muslims brother and sisters are not eating from dawn to dust observing their obligatory fast for the whole month. I admire their commitment to their traditions they were born into.
Understandably all healthy Muslims upon reaching puberty are required to partake in the fast. Individuals who are sick, traveling, pregnant, breast-feeding, menstruating, or debilitated are exempt from fasting.
However, many Muslims who are eligible for exemption choose to fast nonetheless. I am impressed that they had the will power to make it through the day, without passing out or caving in to a snack or drink of water.
There are various reasons that trying Ramadan interests me, not least of which that most of my friends are Muslims. This means no fluids (including water), food, caffeine or tobacco during daylight hours.
Perhaps there is a feeling of solidarity, but also, I see it as a way to experience what a significant population of the world experiences every year.
My first apprehension of “trying” to fast during Ramadan could be considered disrespectful. That is the implication in the act of “trying” that if I found it too hard to continue I could skip it.
Of course, by not trying it I would not understand the privilege of feeling the hardship. I told myself it is better to try hard than hardly trying.
The benefits of intermittent fasting have been well-publicized in recent years. What happens when we fast for extended periods, as with Ramadan and how does fasting affect those with health problems?
The past two decades have seen a rise in the number of investigations examining the health-related effects of religiously motivated fasts.
Ramadan is a 28-30 day fast in which food and drink are prohibited during the daylight hours. The majority of health-specific findings related to Ramadan fasting are mixed. The likely causes for these
heterogeneous findings are the differences between studies in the following:
1) the amount of daily fasting time;
2) the percentage of subjects who smoke, take oral medications, and/ or receive intravenous fluids; and
3) the subjects’ typical food choices and eating habits.
Greek Orthodox Christians fast for a total of 180-200 days each year, and their main fasting periods are the Nativity Fast (40 days prior to Christmas), Lent (48 days prior to Easter), and the Assumption (15 days in August). The fasting periods are more similar than dissimilar, and they can each be described as a variant of vegetarianism.
While the Quran recommends breaking fast with two dates, a glass of water and a bowl of soup, the common dietary practice of Ramadan fasting is to consume one large meal after sunset and one lighter meal before dawn, but some Muslims consume an additional meal before sleeping.
Muslims consume a greater variety of foods during Ramadan compared with the rest of the year. Also, sugary foods and drinks are consumed more frequently during Ramadan.
Many people believes that Ramadan fasting is associated with short-term improvements in good HDL cholesterol, and reductions in bad LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol (although not in people who have diabetes).
Unsurprisingly, Ramadan has been found to lower body weight, body fat percentage and BMI (body mass index) in the short term.
However, the long-term effects of Ramadan fasting on these risk factors remain uncertain. It can also be problematic for the blood glucose levels of people with diabetes. Conversely it can also be beneficial, if managed correctly.
One of the main things keeping me from fast is getting up in the very early hours. To wake up at 3am (in Sabah) to start eating is quite a challenge!
But after having taken Sahur for more than a week in the Manggatal area especially around Kampung Darau, I found it fun to wake up in the early hour of the day and having fellowship in the morning and be rewarded by the beautiful first ray of sunrise.
Understandably, fasting during Ramadan for non-Muslims is most welcome but on the other hand it is disrespectful to invite a Muslim colleague to a work lunch, for instance.
Just as I want to try fasting to see what Muslims experience, fasting itself is a way to understand what the poor experience every day.
That is, that they don’t know when their next meal is coming. Hunger, a true hunger, which many of us in Malaysia have not known since we were young, if ever, is something unfortunately that they know well.
The beauty of Islam tells us that Ramadan is a time that asks us not just to fast, but to give to the poor and be respectful.
On most of the days during the month of Ramadan, Muslims set their alarm for 3am. My first thought about Ramadan was that it was cruel to have to wake up so early just to eat enough for the full day.
As I quickly turned my alarm off and rubbed the sleep from my face, my heart went out to all Muslims who have done this their whole life.
For some who grew up in a big family, their mother cooks a big breakfast for them but not now. Because many of them hated to wake up so early, they will settle with breakfast that took the minimum amount of work required to cook it so that they could sleep longer.
Indeed throughout the world, Muslims are struggling with their own traditions. Even later in life, it doesn’t get easier. And yet, still, they put up with it. Perhaps it was this difficulty that erased the act of fasting in other religions still practised today.
How have so many our Muslim brothers and sisters been able to keep it up, where others had failed? They have my utmost respect.
A Muslim student in London once told me during my college years he couldn’t join the school retreat because it was Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, the end of Ramadan. Obviously, it was the first time his teacher had heard of Eid. It was as important a holiday as Christmas.
The teacher looked at him after he told her he couldn’t come to the school activity because of religious festival. “Well, can you celebrate it on a different day?” She innocently asked. He was politely speechless by her persuasion. How could she suggest such a thing? It was her trademark of pure ignorance.
I am convinced that the world will be a better place if only we practise various forms of empathy. This requires us to take it upon ourselves to learn about traditions and viewpoints which are practised and yet foreign to us. It asks that we see the world in others’ eyes, from time to time.
And, like travel, perhaps experiencing Ramadan as a nonMuslim can be just as rewarding. InsyaAllah!