KwarK edits: It appears people cannot resist taking a thread about a religious festival that a large percentage of the population of Earth enjoy and using it to bash on a religion. That in turn compels people to respond which just further derails. Please remain on topic.
People are misinterpreting Ramadan here as a "party" or a "culture" When in actual Ramadan is the month when Muslims believe that the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking and sexual activities from dawn until sunset. Fasting is intended to teach Muslims about patience, humility, and spirituality. It is a time for Muslims to fast for the sake of Allah and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramadan, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. As compared to the solar calendar, the dates of Ramadan vary, moving backwards about ten days each year depending on the moon.
So in other words I dont understand where the party comes in? The fast is intended to be an exacting act of deep personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised awareness of closeness to God.
Muslims also fast to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm. It also teaches Muslims to practice self-discipline, self-control,sacrifice, and empathy for those who are less fortunate; thus encouraging actions of generosity and charity.
KwarK edits: It appears people cannot resist taking a thread about a religious festival that a large percentage of the population of Earth enjoy and using it to bash on a religion. That in turn compels people to respond which just further derails. Please remain on topic.
wtf?
Ramadan is cool stuff for Muslims. Have a few friends who partake in it. Enjoy your religious holiday(is that a bad word for it? - i hope you get what i mean?).
KwarK edits: It appears people cannot resist taking a thread about a religious festival that a large percentage of the population of Earth enjoy and using it to bash on a religion. That in turn compels people to respond which just further derails. Please remain on topic.
KwarK edits: It appears people cannot resist taking a thread about a religious festival that a large percentage of the population of Earth enjoy and using it to bash on a religion. That in turn compels people to respond which just further derails. Please remain on topic.
So apparently some people are having difficulty doing Ramadan even though I did it 4 years with football and school... kind of like that football player in that article that I saw on Yahoo sports which I think someone referenced, except more school and less physical activity :/.
Anyways... to Diuqil, yes, water was my biggest issue too... but that was cause I was sweating in the middle of 100 degree heat... that sucked... And trust me, a couple of my friends are going through it too, so I know you can do it . Just takes a lil heart/will, whatever you prefer.
Metalwing, kind of seems a bit... ridiculous that you can't just type GG to somebody across the world somewhere who you might never ever meet and such, or maybe cause I never really cussed the majority of my life it isn't too difficult to do, but eh.
RebirthOfLeGenD, if it ever would result in that you don't have to do it... that's the ruling, simple as that. Otherwise it's totally doable, reference some monks who can go for days without eating, or "hunger artists," as kafka wrote once. But they take it to the extreme of turning your body more or less off, we do it while still going about our daily routine, and again, its still very doable for many people... they just have to have personal will.
gds, I would say no TBH, cause it is a pillar of islam... to some degree you could compare it to not praying all year (All 5 prayers every day), donating to the poor in terms of Zakaat, going to Hajj at least once (if possible), or probably the pillar that probably makes it all seem most important, actual belief in Allah and Prophet muhammed... So I would assume not doing Ramadan would be like not believing in Allah :S.
Coalition, simple answer: If something harms you, you tend to not do it (unless your a self-flagellator). As I just mentioned, and as some have mentioned, if it will cause you harm, you don't do it.
Myopia, technically it is from our before sunup prayer to sunset (I think the only different interpretation is by Shi'ite muslims in Yemen, but yeah, totally doable).
Zeal. , yes. Actually where I live, it still is... But I suppose people can always do as they wish, but technically it isn't supposed to be a party really.
Jibba, One thing I will tell you is the difference between Eid al-fitr (Eid after Ramadan) and Eid al-adha (Eid after hajj) is that during eid al-fitr your only supposed to eat... for eid al-adha you sacrifice an animal. That is because for the previous it is supposed to be a sort of relief from the fasting of a whole month during that time period between before sunrise to sunset. As for Eid al-adha, the reason for sacrifice is because of the Story of Prophet Ibraheem/Abraham. For us, he had another son named Ismael (I don't remember if the other Abrahamic religions mention him), one night he had a dream that he was going to sacrifice his son, he interpreted it as a must (because prophet's dreams are supposed to allow for commands to also be "Sent" into them as well). However, when he went to do so he couldn't do it. He meant to, so his son even said to turn him so he wouldn't do it, at that point, The "archangel" Jabreel/Gabriel came down and said to not to (for it was a test to test his willingness to carry out allah's command) and brought instead two rams for sacrifice instead. In that, we in this day and age can now either sacrifice/pay for the sacrifice of a ram to cover us and our family, or 7 people can contribute to the sacrifice of a cow or a camel. I think that might help clear it up a little (hopefully no mistakes were made cause I haven't reread the story/reasoning in a bit and I'm not in the mood to really look it up... this post already is tiring XD).
TheAntZ, yeah I have the opposite effect... I eat very little during Ramadan overall and even during Iftar I eat like maybe a small sandwich and I'm content.
Warfie, it is totally doable, and you are supposed to be able to do your normal routine during Ramadan with no effect on it.
Pandain, The Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar. Thus every year we "go back" about 11 days in comparison to the solar calendar. Thus it keeps changing every year (thus it would take about 33 years for about the same day to be the start of Ramadan again).
exeexe, Yes, but there also tends to be hotter and can also be much more humid, while somewhere like Denmark or so might have more like a 18-20 hour period, but it is much less heat to deal with. As for the northpole. I don't know what the ruling is/if there even is a ruling at this point for I think a muslim would actually consult with somebody at that point. But until then, I just don't know, maybe someone can try to find out.
Meta, just gonna say I probably hate Christmas every year cause while everybody else is celebrating, I'm stuck doing nothing because I don't celebrate it. And it really sucks when you go to Pizza Hut and they have their sign as "open" and then they turn out to be locked -.-
Pinkcarebear, I suppose that anybody can assume whatever they wish to.
KwarK edits: It appears people cannot resist taking a thread about a religious festival that a large percentage of the population of Earth enjoy and using it to bash on a religion. That in turn compels people to respond which just further derails. Please remain on topic.
Pinkcarebear's post pissed me off so I'm coming down hard on any more Islam bashing. Do not bother responding to such posts, no matter how outrageously ignorant they are, as it will just cause further degeneration of the topic. Instead just trust in the moderators to do their job. Please consider yourself warned.
Fellows, this is just a thread that started about a harmless, special holiday. People are so antagonistic towards Muslims about everything. Fasting for a day isn't going to do anything if you are a healthy person. Jews fast multiple times a year, and many Christians do as well. I don't see the same sort of rabid antagonism towards them - particularly Jews.
We are a culture cursed with negative antagonism. We don't negate what is wrong - we simply perpetuate more negativity upon the negativity that we are claiming to negate.
Speaking of which, this is my first Ramadan so yayayayayayayayay. Argh.... ~80 pounds and thinking I could easily go a day without eating. Almost ending now....food smells so good =D Happy Ramadan and blessings to everyone! Yay Islam n.n
On August 13 2010 06:37 KwarK wrote: Do not bother responding to such posts, no matter how outrageously ignorant they are, as it will just cause further degeneration of the topic. Instead just trust in the moderators to do their job. Please consider yourself warned.
On August 13 2010 08:45 UberThing wrote: Islam is a religion of peace
Keeping up the debate is not a good way to end it and I'm sure that someone will reply to that. This discussion is totally off topic.
It's interesting to see how some question whether you can be a Muslim and not fast. I think the Christians who don't go to church are more than the Christians who do go to church. I heard somewhere that there are 250 000 Muslims in Sweden, 100 000 of them consider themselves religious and 25 000 of them actually practice the religion. Can't really confirm those numbers though. Point is that 100 000 of them are still Muslims
i see that a lot of people dont know about the quran and why muslim think its a miracle. Check this guy out and maybe just maybe he can explain to you how muslim think about it (starts 2:30)
On August 13 2010 06:37 KwarK wrote: Pinkcarebear's post pissed me off so I'm coming down hard on any more Islam bashing. Do not bother responding to such posts, no matter how outrageously ignorant they are, as it will just cause further degeneration of the topic. Instead just trust in the moderators to do their job. Please consider yourself warned.
EPT
. Just takes a lil heart/will, whatever you prefer.
