People who are pregnant, nursing or menstruating are often exempt from fasting, as well as older people, people with illnesses and others. While foods at these meals can vary by community, one common choice is dates, a reference to the Prophet Muhammad eating dates to break his fast. These meals are often communal events with friends and family. Muslim people break their fasts after an evening prayer with a meal called ifṭār. Muslim people fasting during Ramadan do not eat food or drink liquids, but it can also “mean abstaining from sexual relationships or for smoking or for any other kind of pleasurable consumption,” Oliver said. “The idea is to sort of invite Muslims to be more charitable in that month and for the rest of the year because you’ve sort of experienced want yourself in very direct ways.” “They remember what it is to face bodily and material deprivation,” she explained. Ramadan is also “for Muslims to engage in acts of charity by depriving themselves of food and drink,” Sayeed said. It's not easy to fast for a full month, and also to abstain from drink.” “It is for Muslims to remember God, to strengthen their relationship with him through an act of piety and sacrifice,” Sayeed said. Muslim people who have reached puberty are called on to fast, a practice of self-restraint intended to bring people closer to God. One major practice of Ramadan is fasting from sunrise to sunset. It marked the first time that God revealed to Muhammed he was a prophet tasked with carrying God’s message. Muslims believe that, during the month of Ramadan, the Prophet Muhammad was given the Qur'an, Islam’s holy book. “The simplest answer is that it's the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar,” Martyn Oliver, faculty chair of the American University Core, told USA TODAY. “The more specific sense is that it's one of the holiest celebratory months in Islamic practice.” Ramadan is a significant month for many Muslim people that involves prayer, fasting, spending time with family and friends and more. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, begins on Wednesday, March 22 in the United States and continues through April 21, ending in the holiday Eid al-Fitr. Many Muslim people will observe Ramadan by fasting from sunup to sundown, praying together, holding communal meals and festivities and more.Īsma Sayeed, an associate professor of Islamic Studies at UCLA, explained that Ramadan is rooted in many practices, including to “invoke the remembrance of God for a continuous period" and “to celebrate and remember the revelation of the Qur'an as a gift to humanity.”īut when is Ramadan? Why do Muslims engage in fasting for Ramadan? Here’s what you need to know. Ramadan begins this week, a holy, month-long observance for Muslim communities in the United States and around the world.
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