“Ramadan” Transcript
This past month, more than one billion people around the world skipped breakfast and lunch
every day. They ate no food of any kind and drank no liquid of any kind from sunup to sunset.
They did this every day during the month, and they do the same thing every year. I myself did it.
Why? Last month was a time for tending to the mind, the body, and the spirit. Last month was
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
I’m sure most of you have heard of Ramadan, but you may not know a lot about it. Ramadan
refers to the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. But
Ramadan is much more than a time of fasting. Tariq Ramadan, author of Western Muslims and
the Future of Islam, explains that Ramadan is a time when “believers strengthen their faith and
spirituality while developing their sense of social justice.”
Ramadan can be traced back 1,400 years to the Middle East and the beginnings of the Quran. As
explained in Karen Armstrong’s Islam: A Short History, in 610 A.D., the Prophet Mohammed
embarked on a spiritual journey through the desert in what is now Saudi Arabia. At one point in
this journey, Muslims believe, Allah spoke to Mohammed through the archangel Gabriel—the
same Gabriel of the Jewish and Christian scriptures.
This is when the Prophet Mohammed received the first verses of the Quran. Gabriel told
Mohammed to remember the revelation by observing a holy time every year. In the years after
this journey, the Prophet Mohammed and his followers made the ninth month of the Muslim
year the month of Ramadan.
adolescence until one no longer possesses the physical strength to undertake it.” The only
exceptions are for the elderly, the sick, travelers, and pregnant women.
At the end of daylight hours, Muslims break the fast with Iftar—the evening meal, during which
families, friends, and communities gather. As Donna Bowen and Evelyn Early explain in their
book Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, Iftar usually begins with eating a date, which is
what the Prophet Mohammed is said to have done. After eating a date and drinking water, my
family would eat the Iftar dinner my mother cooked for us. We always marveled that even
though she was fasting and couldn’t taste what she was cooking, she still somehow got the
spices just right.
Prayer is also central to Ramadan. Muslims traditionally pray five times a day, but during
Ramadan prayer is encouraged even more. Ramadan prayers are often tied to oral readings of
the Quran—a practice known as Tarawih. The goal is to read and recite the entire Quran over
the course of the month.
Thank you.