THE MUSLIM month of Ramadan begins today and is expected to involve about a quarter of the world’s population.
Ali Selim, a Muslim theologian at the mosque in Dublin’s Clonskeagh, said, “in this blessed month of Ramadan, fasting helps Muslims feel the peace that comes from spiritual devotion as well as kinship with fellow believers”.
“By cutting oneself off from worldly comfort a fasting person gains true sympathy with the poor and needy. Ramadan is described as a school of morals.”
Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, which is a lunar calendar. Each month begins with a new moon.
Ramadan, the “month of blessings”, is characterised by prayer, fasting, and charity. Muslims practise sawm, or fasting, for the entire month. They abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam and becomes obligatory from puberty. Older people, pregnant women and certain others are exempt.
Families rise early for suhoor, a meal eaten before dawn. When the sun sets the fast is broken with a meal known as iftar.
The month of Ramadan ends with Eid Ul-Fitr, literally the "festival of breaking the fast", when people dress in their finest, decorate their homes, and visit friends and family.