What Ramadan means to me

Hello, I’m Kamran. An apprentice here at The Bright Click. This week is the last week of Ramadan, and has been very important to me. I have found that not many people know what Ramadan actually is, so I threw this together in the hope to educate more people about its significance.

What is Ramadan: 

The month of Ramadan is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and it’s the month in which the Qur’an was first revealed. To honour this event we sacrifice basic human needs such as food and water from sunrise to sunset.

How do we know when Ramadan starts?

All our islamic event dates are allocated with the islamic calendar, which is different from the normal calendar. We look for a full moon to tell us when a new month has started, so the same goes for Ramadan. This is why we aren’t always sure exactly when the upcoming Ramadan starts, as we wait for the nearest Islamic country to detect the full moon (some just wait for Saudi Arabia to see the moon). Similarly, we don’t know exactly when Ramadan will end, all we have is an estimate which for this year is 2/3rd of May, but it all comes down to when we see the full moon again.

Why fast?

Although there are many studies that show fasting to have huge health benefits, this is not primarily why we fast. We fast as a sacrifice and test for Allah, this test is a way to keep control of our desires. Many of us spend 11 months eating and drinking as a normal, just like breathing, because we consider it to be a basic need to survive, fasting makes sure you always put Allah (God) before your needs/desires, this helps strengthen our soul as we all live surrounded by temptation.

I had a chat with Jacob about what fasting means to me, and how Ramadan can teach lessons about abstinence, control, and can yield a different set of teachings every year:

Breaking and Starting the fast:

We fast from sunrise to sunset, and during that period we have two important meals, one is called Suhoor which is the last meal before we start fasting and the other meal is called Iftaar which is the meal in which we break our fast. During these two meals you can have anything you want. However it is preferable that you break the fast with a Date and then drink water, this is how our Prophet used to break his fast so it is rewarding for us to follow that too.

Some things about Ramadan:

As mentioned previously this month is the month in which the Qur’an was revealed, so there are many important Sunnahs ( Suggested deeds done by our Prophet) that we should all try and do as muslims, in this month we should heavily focus on reading the Qur’an as much as possible (many finish reading the whole Qur’an multiple times), giving as much charity as possible and keep restraining from any bad language, this is because all good deeds are multiplied by 70 in reward during this month and we should try take advantage of it as much as possible.

When Ramadan ends we all celebrate the next day, this is called Eid al Fitr (Eid), it is important that on this day we give money to charity (if we can) and it is recommended that we wear our best clothes and have a nice time with our family and friends.

Thank you,

Kamran.