Muslims begin month of fasting

By Jacquelyn Nixon

Daily Staff Reporter

The home of LSA students Nagla and Rania Fetouh filled with the blended smell of chicken, peas and light incense. The Fetouh sisters served Egyptian goulash, rice, salad, peas and carrots to the female Muslim students following an evening prayer. The small meal, prepared by the sisters and their mother, was the first meal breaking the fast of Ramadan, one of the two major Islamic holidays.

The month of Ramadan, which began yesterday, is one of the five pillars of Islam. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are encouraged to focus on making themselves better, said Nagla Fetouh, an LSA junior.

"If you have a temper, you will restrain it. You will refrain from saying bad words. It's a time where you are more conscious about your actions," she said.

For the next month while the sun is up, Muslims abstain from consuming food and drink, Nagla Fetouh said. Around dinnertime, they get together to collectively break the fast.

"Fasting teaches you self-restraint and you are able to better understand how the hungry feel," she said.

LSA sophomore Rabia Asghar said the meal after sundown isn't large because it is easy to be content from a small meal.

"By the end of the day you're not hungry because your stomach is so small," Asghar said.

Nagla Fetouh said according to the prophet Mohammed, everything you do is for yourself, but fasting is for God.

"Fasting is something that you can do, but God is the only one who will know if you cheat. It's all about self-restraint. You're doing it for God," she said.

Fetouh said although everyone has different schedules, Ramadan is a time when families and friends get together more frequently.

In addition to their daily dinners, students have informally organized an additional meal before sunrise.

"On Fridays we have an Ann Arbor tradition where we go to Denny's at 4:30 a.m.," Asghar said.

Asghar said it isn't difficult to get up early since they are religiously obligated to rise early every morning to pray at sunrise.

For the students, Ramadan is a time of food, fellowship and most importantly, prayer. LSA sophomore Imaan Youssef said the Taraweeh, or nightly prayers which follow the prayer at sunset, are memorized verses from the Koran.

"It's a big deal to have the whole Koran memorized, but a lot of Muslims have done it. It's important to upkeep the oral tradition," Youssef said.

Nagla Fetouh said during the prayer they say 'God is great' three times while bending down.

"Everyone says the same thing and you look towards Ka'bha in Mecca while praying," she said.

Asghar said the Muslim Students Association planned dinners for every night of the first three weeks of Ramadan.

Students campus-wide are invited to a Ramadan dinner prepared by members of the Muslim Student Association on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Stockwell's Blue Lounge.

For the Ramadan dinners, the men and women hold dinners at different venues. Separation of the genders, which is prevalent throughout the Islamic religion and services, is a result of the idea of restraint. During Muslims worship in the mosque, the Islamic place of worship, the men stand to the front and the women remain the back.

"In Islam men and women are supposed to be separate. A man's prayer isn't acceptable if he's behind a woman because he may not be focused on prayer. It's just like why women wear the headdress," Fetouh said.

Interaction between unmarried men and women is minimized if women stand at the back and cover their heads, Fetouh said.

"Women have more self-control, which is why they stand at the back of the mosque," Asghar said.

Although the women appear to have more restraint, the men are certainly not off the hook.

"Everyone is supposed to dress modestly," Fetouh said. "The guys aren't supposed to wear tight clothing, like tight jeans."

MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily

Muslim students gather for prayer at the home of LSA students Nagla and Rania Fetouh in Tower Plaza Condominiums.