Making the best of worship with other daily tasks

Ramadhan is a time for spiritual reflection, improvement and increased devotion and worship during which Muslims are expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • Allow me to bring you into my world for a moment. For the next few weeks, I will wake up every morning at around 3:45 to eat some food and drink as much water as I can stand.

I’m fasting for Ramadhan, but life can’t slow down. How do I make the best of it?

Allow me to bring you into my world for a moment. For the next few weeks, I will wake up every morning at around 3:45 to eat some food and drink as much water as I can stand.

By 4:15am, I will give or take a few minutes, I will stop eating and drinking and will begin a nearly 16-hour complete fast - no water, no food, not even gum. Then I’ll try to get a couple hours of sleep before starting the rest of my day.

Fasting diets are all the rage these days, but I’m not doing this to lose weight, though I hope I will. I’m doing this because it’s the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan.

From May 26, through June 25, this will be my challenge, and the challenge for hundreds of millions of others, who will also be fasting.

In many Muslim-majority countries around the world, businesses will slow down, government offices will close early, families will gather every evening to break their fast together. In some places, people will stay up late into the night - some praying, others socialising - and sleep into the day. But for millions of American Muslims, life will continue on as normally as possible: work, school, children’s activities. While this month is meant to be a time for spiritual reflection and renewal, I am really anxious about how I’m going to get through the next few weeks.

I have a demanding full-time job and two children, who do not understand the meaning of “sleeping in.” I’m worried.

How can I make the best out of Ramadan, while still fulfilling all of my responsibilities? Throughout this month, I will talk to dietitians, athletes, spiritual leaders and other experts to help me answer that question. But first, the basics.

The fast lasts from dusk until sunset. If you live in South America, your fast will be as short as 10 hours. If you live in the northern parts of Asia, it can be as long as 21 hours. For me, living in Washington, it’s 16 hours.

Every year Ramadhan is 10 days earlier than the previous year because it follows a lunar calendar. Eventually, when Ramadhan falls during winter and the days are shorter, my fast will be only 10 hours, like skipping lunch. But that won’t happen for another decade or so.

You don’t have to fast if you are pregnant, nursing, sick, travelling, or on your period. So, if you see one of your colleagues, who has been observing Ramadhan walk in with a cup of coffee in her hand, don’t ask her why because now you know.

I’ve been fasting every year for the past three decades, with the exception of those years I was pregnant or nursing. This is my first year back after a two-year break. It’s not easy. But there are ways to make it more manageable.

For tips, I spoke with nutritionist and dietitian Nour Zibdeh, who is based in Northern Virginia. She has developed an online workshop to help Muslims have a healthy month. An edited excerpt of our interview follows.

Every morning I drink two cups of coffee to get my day started, and 3:45am is just too early to do that.

What can I do to minimise the effects of caffeine withdrawal?

I love my coffee, too, and that is the hardest thing for me during fasting, or one of the hardest things for me.

If you can sleep in, take a nap, because there will be headaches. That’s basic chemistry. If you’re used to caffeine, there will be caffeine withdrawal headaches, and so you just have to take it a little bit easy that day and give yourself sometime to rest.

So, basically you’re telling me I just have to put up with the withdrawal and adjust?

I mean, I know some people, who will take Excedrin, which has caffeine in it, at 3 in the morning.

But then you’re just reinforcing unhealthy habits. If you are that dependent that you can’t function without caffeine, this would be a good time to detox.

Lack of water and dehydration will also lead to headaches. I try to drink lots of water when I wake up in the middle of the night, but I don’t feel like that stays in my system for too long.

So, how should you make sure your body is sufficiently hydrated during these long summer days?

You break your fast at around 8:30 p.m., so you have around seven hours to hydrate. And if you need to drink eight to 10 glasses a day, then you just have to spread them out.

Of course you’re not going to wake up every hour to drink. So usually at iftar (breaking of the fast after sunset), I will fill up my water bottle, so that’s about 16 ounces of water.

The Washington Post