10 Things Your Muslim Friends Wish You Knew About Ramadhan

By

As for those who don’t know what Ramadhan is, Ramadhan is the 9th month in the Islamic calendar and it’s when Muslims fast for up to 30 days or less depending on when the moon shows up as sign of fasting.

1. During this month, Muslims focus on fasting, praying, reading Quran (the holy book), charity giving (having an open hand to the less fortunate’s), making dua (hope/wishes) for all the Muslims in need (wishing and hoping for God to help them in their time of need) avoiding inappropriate subject or topic. It’s all about practicing and focusing on Islam.

2. Muslims cannot eat or drink during Ramadan, even water (H2O). Literally nothing, but of course there’s a time when Muslims are supposed to break their fast and I’ll get to that.

3. Muslims break their fast during the sunset, and stop eating at the time of sunrise. Depending on where you’re located, some fast for 20 hours, some fast for 15 hours and so forth, but they will eventually break their fast.

4. Children aren’t obligated to fast at all, this goes for the older ones only (adults only). This goes for people who aren’t eligible to fast, women who are pregnant

5. The reason behind fasting is that, to feel what the less fortunate go through, for example there are people out there who have no food and no water, this is supposed to make us appreciate what we have and to be thankful to God and to give what we can to the ones who can’t have what we have.

6. During Ramadan there’s a certain specific prayer that Muslims prayer and it’s called (Taraweeh) it’s a continuous prayer after the fifth prayer called Ish’a – Meaning the last prayer. Taraweeh doesn’t last long, depending really.

7. Muslims break their fast by eating dates, this is because we’re following our Prophets steps (rituals) it’s not a must, some may say it’s a must but you can eat the dates if you wish to, some eat 3 dates before their meal or they may even eat 1 or some may eat lots of them.

8. During this month Muslims are focused on increasing their Imaan (faith) and getting closer to God (Allah) asking for forgiveness and making wishes (dua) to their Lord to forgive them for their wrong doings and remove their sins.

9. In this month, you’re supposed to forgive and be patient with everything that’s around you, since your patience is watched by God.

10. It has also been said by doctors that, fasting is very healthy for us and very beneficial since our kidneys will rest for a month and would not be doing the regular work as they always tend to do, and as we all know kidneys do a lot of work in our body.