What is Ramadan?

Assalamu alaikum!

Hello everyone. I hope you’re as amazing as always and it feels complete pleasure to welcome you back to my blog after a long time. Really long time. Thanks for coming back!

This time I welcome you along with my         Co-author of this post, Syed Jameela Sanofar, who had been an incredible support and without whom this post (A breakthrough after long gap) wouldn’t have been possible. 

So, What is this post about? Wait! What was that Assalamu alaikum at the beginning of this post? You remember hearing it somewhere else but can’t possibly recollect it?. 

Don’t worry. I’ll help you out. You must have heard some Muslim greet the other with these two words. So, what does that mean? Why did I start my post with that? Is that a phrase only Muslims should use with each other?

Assalamu alaikum literally means May peace be upon you. 

That’s it. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Even many of us Muslims don’t know the meaning of these words. Once we get to understand it, we can greet all of us with the same. So, May peace be upon you!

Now then, let’s come back to what this post is all about.

(You can skip the underlined passages if you don’t want detailed knowledge of this post)

Well, this is an attempt to let all the readers (Both Muslims and Non muslims) know what the month of Ramadan is? Why is it special and what all is to be known?

Ramadan is a special month for the Muslims because they believe this was the month when the Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad by the almighty Allah.  In this month, all the Muslims who have attained puberty are strictly complied to fast from dawn to sunset. Fasting is considered to be one of the five pillars of Islam which is considered mandatory. 

   Fasting means abstaining not only from food and liquids but from smoking, sex, swearing, gossip or other sinful acts, during daylight hours. ie.. dawn to sunset.

Just staying hungry is not fasting but to stay away from all the bad deeds. 

Doing any of the above things “invalidates” your fast for the day and you just start over the next day. To make up for days you didn’t fast, there are certain norms that are to be followed which is to be asked to the Islamic scholars. The popular one is to fast the other day after Eid al fitr. However if you leave fasting even for a day during this month without a proper reason, no matter how many days you fast, it won’t suffice.

Muslims are also supposed to try to curb negative thoughts and emotions like jealousy and anger and even lesser things like swearing, complaining and gossiping during the month. 

The practice of fasting serves several spiritual and social purposes: to remind you of your human frailty and your dependence on God for sustenance, to show you what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty so you feel compassion for (and a duty to help) the poor and needy, and to reduce the distractions in life so you can more clearly focus on your relationship with God.

The exceptions for fasting are those who are ill, pregnant or nursing, menstruating, or traveling, and for young children and the elderly.

Isn’t fasting harmful? How do you manage to do it for a month?

Fasting isn’t harmful at all. It indeed is healthy. Given, those exceptions mentioned above need not fast necessarily. 

Having all these aside, I got to know from some of my non Muslim friends who fast during Ramadan that fasting has many physically scientific benefits too besides the spiritual benefits it has to offer. 

 Ramadan fasting actually detoxifies body which can be only achieved in terms of eating healthy by especially avoiding bakery and processed foods. 

For those who are really interested about these four stages, here they are! (As received from my friend)

Other can just skip this paragraph!

Stage 1–  This is during first couple of days.

Both blood sugar level and blood pressure drops. The body begins its cleansing process.

Stage 2: Next 8 days.

 Body adopts to fasting and the white blood cells in the body starts to become more active. During this stage each organ starts it’s cleansing process.

Stage 3:  Next 10 days.

Energy level is increased and the healing process is increased as well because of which the body repairs any damaged cell during this stage. This is most effective stage because colon, liver, kidney, lungs and skin are detoxifying itself by eliminating toxins.

Stage 4:  Last 10 days

Organs are finishing up their healing process. So body functions at its maximum capacity.

Okay fine. Leave the scientific benefits. Do we find it hard to fast?

Not really. I’ve been fasting since I was 7 years old and I don’t find it hard. Maybe I am used to it. When asking to some of my friends, some said that the first 2-3 days might be a little hard since the body takes time to adapt but then it becomes normal. 

Do we lose weight? 

Hell no. We don’t. We eat well for itar and suhur. I don’t know how but if we aren’t cautious enough, we might even put on some additional kilograms. If we follow a diet, we might as well lose some weight. As of my experience, as far as ramdan is concerned, both weight gain or weight loss is temporary and the body gets back to its old shape sooner or later. 

What is special about Ramadan? 

In ramadan, Muslims try so hard to live their everyday life in Islamic way. They try to give up watching TVs or listening to songs and they try to spend more time reciting Holy Quran or prayers or in good deeds. 

Ramadan serves as the month which paves way for Muslims to try hard to change their lives and change the way they are completely.

The boy who never prays, prays. The girl who never covers, covers. The man who never fasts, fasts. The people abstain themselves from all the bad deeds. This one month changes around 200 crores of people instantly. Just because they taste the sweetness of faith, they try harder to be spiritually more inclined at least in this month. 

The best thing about Ramadan next to fasting is Zakat which literally means Charity. Every Muslim who owns a minimum of 88 grams of gold (Approx) or its equivalent should give 2.5% of their savings to the poor which means if a man has 1000 Rs in his savings, he has to give 25 rs to the poor. Not a rupee less. It is compulsory for a Muslim to give away zakat during the month of Ramadan and this is also one of the pillars of the Islam. 

After 30 days of fasting, the Eid al fitr marks the end of the month of Ramadan which is celebrated as the Ramadan festival worldwide. 

This is Ramadan! The holy month which you’ve only known through the whatsapp status, Dp, Fb posts and tweets.

I am not a Muslim. What can I do in this month? 

Special Thanks for reading this certain paragraph. So, what can you do in this month? 

Please try to understand your Muslim friends if they can’t hangout with you for a party or for a trip or if they say they’ve got prayers every night for more than an hour or if they say they can’t spend much time online or if they refuse to join you for dinner. 

Try not to ask or force them to eat when they’re fasting. Asking without knowledge is totally fine and we understand it. Try not to eat in front of them in a way which reminds them of food. 

Try to share some works of them if they work with you. They would be so very pleased. 

Try not to ask them to join for a dinner since they can eat at that time. Most of us can’t take anymore food after iftar. 

To put it simply, please try to understand us and if knowingly or unknowingly, we say or do any wrong, forgive us! 

Thanks for reading this article. It means a lot to have spent your time for this post. 

Your comments are most welcome!  And your comment and share would encourage the new author too. So please don’t be calculative in liking, commenting or sharing! Thank you for reading!

Until I come back with another amazing post, keep supporting! XoXo

And yeah, Assalamu Alaikum. 😉