I know that pregnant women are specifically excluded from fasting during daylight for Ramadan. I wondered if soldiers who are at war have similar exclusions? It sounds like the U.S. is not going to lay off during Ramadan, so Taliban and Northern Alliance soldiers (and American muslim soldiers, for that matter) are going to be on duty and potentially have huge physical demands placed upon them. Do they fast?
I mean, if I were the Taliban, I’d be mighty worried about an attack coming at 5 pm when everyone’s running on their last reserves. I wondered if they made exceptions for someone doing something that was, to them, such holy work.
I am not a Muslim, but I’ve asked a few about this.
Certain exceptions to the fast exist. Young children, for instance, are not expected to adhere to this, and while older children are encouraged to try it, failure to stick to it some days is expected since they are still developing self-discipline. (Adults have enough trouble sticking to it - it’s not unusual for an adult Muslim to lapse one or two days out of Ramadan, especially here in the west when they’re surrounded by people eating all day.)
Pregnant women, of course, are excluded, as is anyone who has a health condition that would be worsened by a fast, such as a diabetic.
Those who are traveling are exempted from the fast, probably because back in Mohammed’s day, when travel was more difficult, longer, and required more physical effort travelers required food for energy and obtaining food might be complicated enough without adding a fast to it.
Soldiers fighting are also specifically exempted, for what should be obvious reasons. So there’s no religious reason they couldn’t continue to fight through Ramadan, and in fact, the referenced Arab-Isreali war is called the “Ramadan War” by the Arabs.
The title of this thread is “Ramadan and Soldiers at war”, and does not specifically reference fasting. Therefore, I hope that the following will not be considered off-topic. If you do think it is off-topic, I sincerely apologize.
My question is this: Is the idea of a war during Ramadan something which Muslims would genuinely try to avoid? Or is this just an over-sensitivity on the part of non-Muslims (such as Bush today, and his father 10 years ago) who presume the ideas of “war” and “holy month” to be mutually exclusive. Perhaps Muslims really do not mind having a war in Ramadan?
I ask this because:
The aforementioned 1973 war began in Ramadan, and as far as I know, it was the Arabs who started it, unless one wants to claim that it was merely a continuation of the existing conflict. But even so, that specific set of hostilities was initiated by the Arabs, and could have waited another 3 weeks, except that they would then lose the advantage of catching Israel off-guard on Yom Kippur. (If anyone diagrees on these points, please post specific source information.)
The famous Battle of Badr, everybody’s favorite early Muslim victory, was fought in Ramadan. At Badr in Ramadan of the year 2 A.H., 313 Muslims beat an enemy force of about 1000. Broomstick’s information about warfighters being one of the classes of people exempted from fasting is correct. They can make it up later in other months when they get the chance. AFAIK, there has never been any particular aversion to fighting in Ramadan, especially with the Battle of Badr as precedent.
I guess nowadays, Uncle Sam is concerned to show that he’s sensitive to other cultures by not attacking during their sacred time. We are now in the age of the Sensitive Warrior, in touch with his feelings.
But in fact, if Uncle Sam would study Islamic history a little more thoroughly, he would learn that there are four Sacred Months mentioned in the Qur’an, in which fighting was prohibited. And Ramadan is not one of them. The four months are Rajab, Dhu al-Qa‘dah, Dhu al-Hijjah, and al-Muharram. Actually, this is not from the religion of Islam, but from the old Arabian tribal tradition. The Qur’an went along with it to some extent, but allowed Muslims to fight back during the Sacred Months if they were attacked. I don’t know if anyone continued to observe the tradition for very long after Islam was established. Anyhow it hasn’t been observed for many centuries and is only of historical interest now.
