The Month of Ramadan

Fasting is the next pillar, and that is one month of the lunar year, the month called Ramadan. It moves. It is interesting to note that the lunar year basically makes a full cycle — in other words, it will go through the solar year one time — every thirty-two years. So if a person's average lifespan is somewhere around sixty-five — now, it is a little higher in this country — that person is going to be fasting two times in all the months of the year. Ramadan will be in December twice in a lifetime. And it is very interesting, because that is related to a kind of justice as well. Because of the different places on the earth, one will find that for some people Ramadan is very long at a given part of the year, and for other people it is incredibly short. So in England there are periods where it would be very long, and then there are periods where it will only be about seven hours, a very short fast; and in the middle part of the world it is actually quite reasonable — it is usually around twelve hours near the equator. In the winter there are very short days; in the summer there are long days.

Fasting is basically abstaining, during the lunar month of Ramadan, from food and drink — including cigarettes, from taking anything past the throat; one can rinse the mouth and things like that, but anything past the throat breaks the fast — and from sexual relations, both foreplay and actual full intercourse. So during the month of Ramadan the Muslim is commanded to abstain from those things, both men and women. In one of the schools of law it is not encouraged for children to fast; it is actually discouraged, and if they get older, around ten or eleven, they can fast if they want to, but it is not considered something that a child should be forced to do. Fasting is pretty straightforward.