RAMADAN 1438: FASTING IN OTHER PLACES (V)

Allahu Akbar! Finally, the end of Ramadan is nigh. Just like yesterday we started, and see how fast it has gone! Perhaps tomorrow or Monday will be Sallah Day. So let me Barka da Sallah in advance. And it has been an eventful Ramadan – a little more electricity, some cooling and refreshing rain, a […]

Allahu Akbar! Finally, the end of Ramadan is nigh. Just like yesterday we started, and see how fast it has gone! Perhaps tomorrow or Monday will be Sallah Day. So let me Barka da Sallah in advance. And it has been an eventful Ramadan – a little more electricity, some cooling and refreshing rain, a little more expensive fruits, and finally some missing tons of sabil dates. 

In the final edition of our series ‘Fasting in Other Places’ (or ‘Ramadan Unusual’), today two other readers share their own experiences of fasting outside Nigeria while on studies abroad: Alhaji Abbati Dankanti Gumel of NNDC-ICAN Study Centre, Murtala Muhammad Library, Kano, was in the UK more than 35 years ago; while Dr. Rasheeda Mohammed of ATBU Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, was in the US a few years ago. 

ABBATI GUMEL ([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>): LONDON – Fasting away from home, as well as living away from home, is as expected tasking, interesting and challenging. As for me, I had my first experience of fasting outside my comfort zone a student in London back in 1981, so long ago when I come to think of it. 

For people knowledgeable in the cycle of time, every 33 years or so of the Islamic Calendar approximate 30 years of the Gregorian, as the Islamic Calendar is about eleven days shorter every year. One of the wisdoms for this, we have been taught, is that in a generation of about 30 years if one were alive, one would have fasted in every season of the year – summer, autumn, winter and spring or, in our own climate, rainy season (damina), harvest season (kaka), dry season (bazara) and harmattan (hunturu).  

The year I was in the UK was a little over a generation ago, so at that time it was summer when the day is much longer than the night, much like this year and a few years past and hence. 

As a young man then and a first timer, the length of the fasting time was really shocking – it would start at 3.00am and finish at almost 10pm – a whopping 19 hours of non-stop no-eating and no-drinking! But even in those long ago days, every mosque in London would prepare and distribute Ramadan Timing leaflets which was (and still is) a very important aide memoire in an environment where one could rarely see the sun rising or setting, or the dawn breaking. 

Despite the beauty and compassion of Islam which allows a travelling Muslim to eat and drink during the day in Ramadan and repay after return home, most Muslims, such as us students, would always prefer to fast. First, Allah says in the Qurán “Wa An Tasumu Khairun Lakum…” (“And To Fast Is Better For You…”), and second, as students then travelled in groups, one may generally not be fasting alone, so there is comfort in company or, as they say, safety in numbers. 

Luckily for many, despite the long period of fasting in Europe in the summer, it is never as hot as it is in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fasting in a cool weather is much easier, however long the duration. So perhaps it can be said that the length of European fasting is counterbalanced by the shorter hours in African fasting. 

But one of the most intriguing and disturbing factors facing Muslims in cold weather countries, at least from my experience, has been the hunger (not thirst) and tiredness after a day’s activity, which were essentially my personal challenges during my sojourn in the UK. Conversely, in Africa it is thirst, not hunger, that is identified as the biggest challenge. 

No wonder ice block sellers make brisk business during hot Ramadans (although this year, because of the cooling rains, the market has not been so brisk). So it is that as we scramble for cold drinks at the end of our fast in Nigeria, most Muslims fasting in cold weather countries would scramble for a hot cup of tea, and hot soup. 

Ramadan in the UK also provided me one of the best networking opportunities. I got to know many Muslims through interaction in London mosques, people whom I wouldn’t have known by just being a foreign Muslim student, except for Ramadan. And this kind of zumunci lasts forever. 

Ramadan Mubarak! 

RASHEEDA MOHAMMED ([email protected]): NEW YORK – I had just graduated from university as a medical doctor when I got this opportunity to undergo some prestigious training in New York, ma sha Allah. But one of the greatest challenges I was to face was Ramadan. 

Being a neophyte in life and without much experience, being away from home itself was a challenge, and fasting in a strange land was almost double jeopardy! It was quite daunting initially, but I gradually adapted. Of course there were the long hours of the fasting, but that was not the actual worry; the worry was that of not having Iftar with family. Whoever does not value family should wait until they are away from them. Then one would know the real value of being with loved ones! 

Growing up as a child in Bauchi and Dass, I can vividly recall my siblings and I holding our water and dates to hand and at the ready, waiting for the Ladan to call the Kiran Sallah to break the fast. That was when our father would look at us and say ‘ba na son busy body!’ Alas! In New York where would one hear a Ladan? Where would one hear Kiran Sallah? Unless one was inside a mosque at that particular time, one had to rely only on the Internet for Iftar and Sahur times! 

In Bauchi and Zaria and Kano where I did my house job, the nearest mosque may be just next door. So the Tarawih and the Tahajjud are just as if you are at home. But in New York, the nearest mosque could be as far away as the distance from Zaria to Kano. So you are on your own! And of course at home you always get the Kunu and Kosai treat, in other countries you have to ‘manage’ with the manageable available.  

All the same, as I got used to my new environment I began to enjoy fasting in that foreign land as at least I got to eat fresh fruits and juices on the cheap, most of which may not be cheaply available in Nigeria, and even then only in the big cities. 

But very importantly, Ramadan in America helped me straighten and strengthen my Iman, as then I needed not be reminded by Azaan to say my prayers. I acquired the self-discipline to pray and fast without prompting, to be up and doing without encouragement, and to generally value my values and my religion in a non-Muslim environment. If I was not fasting or praying, nobody would have noticed the difference, because almost no one else knew, or cared, it was Ramadan. Perhaps the comfort zone actually makes one too complacent!  

So alhamdu lilLah for the Iman-boosting Ramadan in a foreign land! 

FROM THE COLUMNIST: Ma sha Allah alhamdu lilLah for this journey called Ramadan. We are grateful to all those who shared their experiences, and we apologise to the many others whose contributions we could not accommodate. May Allah reward us all. 

Among the many conclusions one can surmise from the contributions of all the ten ladies and gentlemen who wrote in during this Ramadan is that Kunu and Kosai are an indispensable part of a Hausa-Fulani-Kanuri Northern Muslim Ramadan Iftar. 

May Allah have accepted our fasting and other devotions; may we have witnessed Lailatul Qadr.  

Once again, Barka da Sallah in advance.