Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and a holy month for Muslims, begins Wednesday at sundown.
During Ramadan many Muslims will refrain from eating, smoking, drinking, fighting and sex during daylight hours for the entire month. Each night the fast is broken with a meal called Iftar, and each morning before the sun rises families eat suhoor together.
According to www.factmonster.com, “Ramadan is ‘a month of blessing’ marked by prayer, fasting, and charity.”
During Ramadan, Muslims participate in fasting and charity because fasting and giving to others are two of the five pillars, or duties, of Islam. The other pillars are declaring that Allah, the Arabic word for God, is the only god; praying five times per day; and making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Muslims celebrate the “Night of Power” on the 27th evening of the month, when they believe the Prophet Muhammad first received the revelation of the Quran, according to www.holidays.net. When the fast ends at the start of the next month, the three-day “Feast of Fast Breaking” holiday is celebrated with gatherings, gift exchanges and large meals, according to the Web site.
Ramadan is a time for cleansing the body and soul and getting closer to Allah.
“We control our own lives for a change instead of letting things control us,” Khadija Al-Rafeea, a Fulbright exchange student from Bahrain, told the Emerald last year. “Once a year you get in control of daily pleasures, instead of them controlling you.”