Yeah, I can’t imagine NOT being listless and somewhat braindead after a large meal.
My mom was a sixth grade teacher, and we were chatting about this over dinner last night. Most years she had at least one Muslim student in her class who fasted during Ramadan. Her classroom was arranged so that the students’ desks were in groups of three, side by side. During Ramadan, the fasting students got middle seats, so if they fainted, they’d fall against another kid, instead of hitting the floor. I’m not kidding. “Except Reggie,” she said, “he still got a middle seat, but he was a slider… he’d slide down and underneath the desk!”
She says that she and some other teachers would often find them work to do during lunch, so they could stay out of the lunchroom if they wanted. They were expected to participate in all their regular classes, including gym class, and to do all their regular homework.
I asked what age the kids had to start fasting, and she says that as far as she knew, it was whenever they felt ready, and that they looked forward to being grown up enough to participate. By 6th grade, every Muslim student she knew was Muslim was fasting.
It is common.
This is not true at all. After the sundown and the Maghrib prayer there is no objection to eating meat, this is a christian thing, and there is no objection to sex, or music - except by the Salafistes who object to it always.
It is a practice for those who engage in haram things like drinking alcohol, and this is not uncommon it must be said in many places, to cease this for all of Ramadan and the 10 days before.
Yes it is true. There is in fact price tensions around Ramadan because of these demand pressures and it comes into inflation planning done by governments, it is such a serious issue.
Yes this is typical and becomes more so for the Ramadan that are in summer.
If the students fainted I must say that there was extemism in the approach. This should not happen.
If I understand the age of sixth grade correctly, these children should not have been doing the fasting for the full day at this age. Fasting fully should come at puberty. I find this practice of pushing the fasting early to be hateful, and based on ignorance. It seems to be too common among the salafistes and some of the denatured communities who over react.
6th grade in the US is generally 12 and 13, so yes, in the midst of puberty or after menarche for most of them.
Fainting was not common, but happened enough that rearranging the seats was a wise move. I suspect some of that “fainting” was just kiddos falling asleep. We don’t rearrange our schedules here, so if they weren’t eating dinner until 9, and especially if extended family or guests were over to break the fast, I can’t imagine they were getting to bed very early. Their sleep must suffer some. School starts at 8am, Ramadan or no Ramadan.
In Islamic countries, do they delay the start of the school day during Ramadan?
Fainting in pubescent children is no big deal, and doesn’t necessarily suggest any long-term harm. In the days when Catholics fasted from midnight before going to church (and therefore went to church with no breakfast) it wasn’t unusual for a kid to faint in church now and then - low blood sugar.
There was an article about observing ramadam based on football teams from Arabic nations. Part of the discussion was about observation when above or below the polar circles where it is light or dark all day. The answer was that theer were differences depending on interpretations by different sects- some revert to fasting during hours set for Mecca, others keep the time for the place towards the equator where there is four hours of night if there is less than that locally.
Ramira, thank you for these answers. They go a long way to clearing up the confusion.
Would you please explain what is meant by “denatured communities”?
Yes, Ramira, thank you. There is a large Muslim community in the SF Bay Area (I live in the East Bay), and the Muslim people I have come to know have made a deep impression on me because of their warmth and good character.
So I am curious about Islam for that reason.
I remember reading a fatwa once where a woman wished to know whether it was acceptable to taste the food she was preparing for breaking the Ramadan fast to make sure it was seasoned properly, if she didn’t actually swallow it. I am pretty sure (but too lazy to confirm) that the scholar said it was either discouraged or forbidden.
On the question related to low blood sugar, I will note that many Muslims will not fast every day or at all for various reasons. More religiously legitimate reasons for this can include hard work, ill health, travel, pregnancy, or menstruation. Still, even if a religiously valid reason exists for missing a fast day, many will happily choose to soldier on.
Unfortunately, it must be said that there are also many people around the world who are pressured to participate in the fasting and other rituals around Ramadan, by their families or by the wider community. Apostasy is a very touchy subject in many Islamic communities and actually declining to participate in Ramadan (rather than accidentally breaking the fast or coming up with a traditional justification) can and does cause problems for people that it really shouldn’t. Ramadan is a festive, restorative time for most people who participate in it (and I am looking forward to a few Iftar dinners myself), but unfortunately for some it is quite the opposite.
One of my coworkers has a (former) son-in-law who is Muslim. He’s resident here in the US, and is originally from Morocco. He’s employed as a long distance truck driver, so during Ramadan he tries to stay on the road at night, and sleep during the day. That’s in so much as it fits with his delivery schedule.
The last couple of years her grandson, the driver’s son, has tried the fast. He’s thirteen this year and the father is immensely pleased that his boy is trying at least one tenet of Islam.
Ah, I checked after all and see that tasting but not eating food has backing in the hadith literature. My mistake.
Let’s say it varies among different communities. The Muslims I’ve known avoid eating meat during Ramadan.
No let us not say such things that are false.
There is no injunction at all in the Sunnah against eating of the meat in the Ramadan. What you have said you have seemed to get confusion with some of the eastern Christian Arab practices that have no thing to do with the Sunnah.
It is most likely you did not understand something you were told since you have confused the concept with abstaination from the sexual relations and other things, and said things that are not true.
Otherwise, for the working hours, it varies, but it is common for some special hours to be set during the Ramadan month that are much shorter than the normal hours, to start later and to end much earlier. How this can apply to the schools depends on the system.
It is forbidden to fast in Sunnah if it makes you lose consciousness. This is an exaggerated practice, I think often by families who are not learned and are reacting to being in the West by exaggerating.
The faithful observe Ramadan voluntarily, according to their own conscience, guided by instructions laid out by modern Islamic thinkers who are no longer astonished by the sphericity of the planet and the eccentricity of its course through the cosmos.
There are Muslims who are attached to research parties in the Arctic and Antarctic, and somehow, they find a way to deal with unusual circumstances without offending Allah. Nobody is ever obliged to observe Ramadan, if doing so threatens their physical or medical wellbeing for any reason.
All Muslims are expected to do, and all they call on themselves to do, is to make a diligent effort to meet the Spirit of the Koran, and show some inconvenience in order to make the sacrifice.
Yes, even more by those who are reacting to what they say is the Western influences, like the salafistes. But it can be said that normally for those who do not want to do the fast, if they come up with some excuse that is plausible under the religion, mostly they are left alone. Saving face is important.
This is the first time I’ve heard something be corrupted by eastern influences. It’s such a contradiction to stereotype* it made me laugh.
*of cultural loss stemming from European imperialism.
No doubt there are some communities that are so conservative, that that is true. But I have spent three entire Ramadans in Islamic countries, in Jordan, Kuwait/Iran and Indonesia. In all three places, people who wanted to eat or drink during the day had the good manners to respect those who were fasting, and ate surreptitiously without being in the face of those who were fasting. Boys in the streets delivering tea and coffee to places of business on silver trays were very much in evidence during Ramadan, but with the tray of tea inside a cardboard box, not in view of people who were committed to doing without. Eating inside private homes was widespread, as long as there was nobody present who was fasting, but one would never eat or drink in front of a faster, not out of compulsion, but out of the very high sense of civility that is characteristic of all Muslims…
However, even non-practicing Muslims still significantly reduced their eating during the day, simply vecause it is the custom, just as non-practicing Christians put up Christmas trees and exchange gifts. Ramadan ends with a traditional holiday of great festive importance, and it is observed by everyone.
No, let’s not go with that. Because I’m not going to agree with something that isn’t true.
I’m not going to presume of what happens in the Muslim community you belong to.
Don’t you presume on what happens in the Muslim communities I’m familiar with. I have been involved with several different Muslim communities over a period of many years and I have been directly involved in their Ramadan practices. So I know for a fact that these communities do not eat meat during Ramadan.