The first week of school for most students usually means buying books, partying and planning. For Muslim students this year, however, it is all about fasting, praying and reflecting.
This year’s first day of school marks the beginning of Ramadan, a month-long holiday of fasting for Muslims. Muslim students will not eat or drink while the sun is up and will abstain from behaviors such as gossiping and cursing.
“Sometimes we don’t even get time to sleep,” said senior criminology and criminal justice major Ridwanur Rahman, president of the Muslim Students Association. “You can tell when a person’s fasting.”
Because the dining halls are not open early in the morning, fasting students have nowhere to go for Suhoor, the pre-dawn meal.
“It was difficult when The Diner wasn’t open, or it closed early,” said senior government and politics and Spanish major Sana Javed, a member of the Muslim Women of Maryland. “You just have to adjust and work around it.”
The solution? Students simply stock up the night before on dining hall food for the next morning and eat it while the rest of the students in the dorm sleep.
This irregular eating schedule sometimes leads to a late-night culture among students.
“Last year, I lived in Elkton, and our lounge was turned into a quad, so I had to go down to another floor to use their microwave,” Javed said. “There was this guy sitting at the table, and he was like, ‘Why are you awake?’ … It got into this huge discussion about the purpose of fasting.”
The timing of Ramadan is based on a lunar calendar. The holiday moves back 10 or 11 days each year. As the holiday gets closer to the summer months, the days get longer, meaning a longer fasting period each day. This year marks the first time this generation has had to deal with fasting in the summer, junior journalism major Omar Mohammed said.
In September, the sun sets in Washington at about 6:15 p.m. and rises at about 5:45 a.m., giving students less than 12 hours to eat, sleep and pray before they get up and begin it again the next morning.
Javed said the month is like a crash course in time management.
“You really learn to value your time,” she said.
Ramadan’s timing is even harder, as students try to meet up with friends they haven’t seen all summer. Most students will grab a bite to eat on Route 1 as they catch up on their three months apart, they said.
“I know [that] before I realized when Ramadan was, I was planning to go to a lot of events,” Mohammed said.
Other students agree it will be difficult, but also a necessary part of their religion and culture.
“It hurts not being able to eat, but we’ve been doing it since we were kids,” said senior accounting and government and politics major Jehanzeb Hussain. “I can tolerate it.”
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