Ramadan: Month of Holy Atonement
Melih Onvural

November 27th brought a close to the first trimester break at Cary Academy.  For many it was another mundane Monday and the beginning of a new trimester.  However, the Muslim population at the school held this day in high regard.  It was the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, demanding the ritual of fasting from sunrise to sunset.  Fasting requires that an individual abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, or engaging in sexual intercourse.  A month of holy fasting, observance, and resistance to life’s most demanding temptations had begun.

The history of Ramadan started almost 1,400 years ago when the prophet Mohammed claimed that God, whom he called Allah, spoke to him as he was meditating in a cave.  Over the next few years Mohammed received the pages of the Koran (The Islamic Holy Book), but it was during Ramadan that he receive the first ones.  He began preaching the gospel of monotheistic religion, but after years of harassment, he was exiled from his homeland around Mecca and forced to move to Medina.  In Medina his ideas were readily accepted, and he built an army to sweep back into Mecca and eventually the entire Arabian Peninsula.  The Islamic religion was hence born and with it a rush by its followers to spread the religion to regions of the world, where pagans still reigned.  At the height of Islamic-based conquests, Muslim civilizations owned most of Spain, all of North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, while moving into modern-day Turkey.  Even today the people stop their normal routines and fast when Ramadan comes, which changes from one year to the next because it's based on the lunar calendar, in remembrance of the day that Mohammed received the first pages of the Koran.

Today the Muslim world stretches from North Africa, into the Middle East, Southeast Asia and even the Philippines.  One-sixth of the world’s population, or one billion people, claim to be Muslim.  In the Middle East, where most non-Judaic faiths tend to be Muslim, entire lifestyles change during the Ramadan season.  Many sleep all day and only wake up an hour before sunset so that they can eat almost immediately after they wake-up.  People can be seen on the streets, or at bazaars, around 2 AM.  Since abstaining from smoking is one of the most difficult rules to follow, many workers rush home so that they can have their ifthar, or breakfast, and then smoke after it.  

No matter what happens, a sense of unity and cultural pride exist amongst all groups.  Ramadan is one of the only times of year where the rich give lavishly to the poor.  Many who go hungry all year get three courses during Ramadan due to its significance in the Islamic religion.  During times of prayer everyone wears white and bows together creating one large individual praying, instead of lots of people praying individually.

A handful of students at Cary Academy found themselves following a tradition that was set forth almost 1400 years ago.  They wake up before 5:30, eat breakfast, and come to school.  They observe the month of fasting by not eating, drinking, smoking, or partaking in sexual intercourse while the sun is still in the sky.  However, as soon as 5:00pm comes around and the sun sets, one could bet that all Muslims are at a table somewhere eating as though they haven't eaten in years.