Ramadan Kareem

Our Opinion/Respecting Ramadan can help us mature as Americans

By Whitney Retzer
Contributing Writer

Ramadan Kareem my brothers and sisters! A generous and fulfilling Ramadan to you! No, I’m not a Muslim sister, but I wanted to shout some respect for all of those that are together in faith. I also wanted to explore something special about this time and the cultural significance for Muslims and non-Muslims.

What a time! Fasting is from dawn to dusk for 29 to 30 days depending on the Islamic calendar: no drinking, smoking, even chewing gum during the day in deprivation to find a better closeness to Allah. This time is meant to be relaxing; reading the Quran, praying, and contemplating Allah before you break the fast with a large community of friends and family at dusk with the meal lftar. Families go to other families’ houses or restaurants where everyone eagerly waits for the call to prayer to begin drinking apricot juice and feasting on local specialties.

Different countries hold different allowances for their people; here in the United Arab Emirates Ramadan means shortened work days: mandatory six employment hours or less with a change of schedule to allow for less energy. This means laborers, Muslim or non-Muslim, will typically work around 3 a.m. - 9 a.m. to avoid to the heat of the day and be able to fill up during their shift and pray before dawn. It seems a general malaise spreads over all the people as offices are closed earlier; people enjoy extended naps during the day, and the nights come alive with families, food, laughter, and celebration.

I asked my students why they liked Ramadan, and there were a variety of entertaining answers from children aged six to eighteen. The older ones enjoyed the freedom to sleep lazily through the day without harassment from parents regarding studies, ambition or work ethic. Younger students enjoyed that their mom prepared sweets every day, and they got to eat special food during this time. All agreed they loved to play at night because the day is for resting when you are fasting, but the night is for playing hide-and-seek in huge family compounds with all of your cousins. My boss said she gets nothing done at night because the children are running around until dawn when they eat and then finally go to sleep. Other children had more creative answers included Allah’s protection from the legendary evil jinn or genies of Islamic and Bedouin folk lore. And more pious young’uns felt a genuine closeness to God as kneeling on the earth will humble anyone, especially if you increase your prayer regiment from five to seven prayers a day as recommended during Ramadan.

Anyone that has practiced yoga can understand a higher connection in kneeling and giving thanks; it is just this motion that eases the day’s worries, after all at the end of every day we are simply fallible humans. Sometimes when I wake up early I will watch my neighbors praying in the morning. Although watching their activities is far from a scandalous nature, I feel guilty for glancing at these private, special, and sacred daily rituals. I watch them pray, prayer mat pointed in the direction of Qibla or Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This symbolizes an international unity of all Muslims praying together in the same direction. It’s like collective moments of silences held simultaneously in homes, hotels, airports and offices. Even astronauts in space have an authority by the Malaysian National Space Agency in which direction to pray.

I find solace knowing there are good people that wake up and pray, my neighbors, in fact. For, I am up because of a bad hangover and I couldn’t sleep any longer with my pounding headache. I can believe in a world where people have faith even if I am lacking it. It is in their certainty of godliness that I can believe in humanity, and to trust and believe in humanity takes a divine confidence.

It is tradition with strong families and friends that reinforce this ancient culture culminating the ending of Ramadan with the festival Eid ul Fitr. Like Christmas, Eid and Ramadan have also transformed into a huge market opportunity for specialized foods and gifts as people feast and celebrate for three days over Eid at the end of the month. Children receive money and presents from all of their family members and Muslims are encouraged to give a percentage of their income to Zakat or charitable giving for the year as one of the five pillars in the Muslim faith. Mosques offer free Iftar meals, and many other institutions proudly give for Ramadan Kareem means generosity for all.

Even loosely affiliated Muslims friends will attempt to fast for Ramadan. They will try to abstain from alcohol for the month, and they have said this is a good time to give thanks for the god. Mainly it is a time of being together as Iftar is taken daily with families and friends to break the fast as a community.

It is in this community of close friends and families I sometimes miss a feeling of belonging to a tighter culture or tradition. At times from our pilgrim past, we Americans have tried to shed much ancestry and traditions in favor of assimilating into something newer and better, less ethnic. I know of parents that take their children to church not out of faith, but out of the sense of community this creates for children and moral lessons from the past taught regarding History and Geography.

It’s impossible to deny the impact that religion has on culture and people; regardless of a person’s independent beliefs, they have had this morality threaded through and through. The Mexicans and Central Americans strong Catholic roots with the Virgen de Guadeloupe on every grandmother’s wall; every Easter you will see the hardest discothèque partiers taking their grandmothers to morning mass in a dreadful hung-over state. The Buddhists of Asia’s laissez faire attitude regarding the ultimate suffering of life in relation to a higher Nirvana must seep into their consciousness as they work the rice paddies and pour stiff whiskeys. The hard working Confucianists of China and Korea that become Tiger Mothers and the children that pour over lessons for 12 hours a day.

Does this mean we Americans are derivatives of our pilgrim roots? We are religious rebels that have sought the freedom to do all and shun all we see fit? It feels familiar, doesn’t it? But in our acceptance, tolerance, or avoidance, have we lost something special and cultural that brings people together instead of separating them into groups? Remembering the past, appreciating the diversity, enjoying the culture that has come from a young nation. We are like wayward, confused toddlers compared to century old nations of people.

Holding onto the past is a difficult task in the changing times, but everyone loves to celebrate. It’s challenging to fathom how fasting for Muslims in Ramadan could be celebratory, but our habits of closeting and silencing things, people, and ways of life that we don’t understand promotes blind ignorance. But opening your eyes to children’s anticipation for the fasting, seasonal goodies and presents over the Eid festival and opening your ears to the calls to prayer and communal sigh as the fast ends is special even for a spectator. Ramadan Kareem!

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