Let the Fasting Begin

Tonight marks the beginning of Ramadan. Recognizing that the world as we know it is overwhelmingly Muslim, it seems appropriate then that www.msnbc.com ran this headline: “World’s Billion Muslims Begin Ramadan Fast”. And so they have.

The Tehran Times, editorializing about the celebration, noted that fasting is a form of obligatory worship. Their abstinence will encompass food, drink AND sexual intercourse from dawn to sunset for the entire month. During this time, Muslims are also obliged to control their behavior, sight, hearing and speech if the rite is to be perfect.

Knowing how bad my behavior can get when I don’t eat for five or six hours, I think that last obligation to control “behavior, sight, hearing and speech” is ideal. Don’t eat, but we don’t want you behaving badly when your blood sugar plummets and you’re ready to drive over somebody’s foot or you’re ready to take out the car in the other lane or you can’t concentrate and that’s why you’re not listening! And no sex during the day…well, isn’t that just too bad.

In full disclosure, I should probably mention that New Yorkers don’t particularly like to ride with fasting cab drivers during Ramadan. Touchy, touchy, touchy and seldom alert.

Tonight, I had dinner with Ba, who is our security guard. He lives here at the house, does all the exterior work, takes care of the yard and the flowers, looks after the livestock and when he can, he tends to slip away during the day to tend to his flock of cattle and to see his wife and three kids. I asked Ba if he gets headaches when he fasts. Perhaps it was my perfectly horrible French that caused his reaction, which was one of disbelief…”Mal du tete? Mais, non!” he responded with incredulity. To which I replied: “Vraiment? J’ai le grand mal du tete après quatre or cinq heures quand je ne mange pas.” [Loosely translated: Really? I have big headaches after four or five hours when I don’t eat.”]

At that precise moment, the evening prayers started over the loudspeaker from our neighborhood mosque. Usually when I’ve read about prayers being broadcast, it’s in reference to morning prayers, which begin at 5 a.m. There are actually prayers five times a day. Tonight Ba said that the prayers would be broadcast all day every day during Ramadan. For a whole month? All day? Oh dear. Fourteen hours of amplified prayers could make one hateful and hurtful. It could make one say un-nice things. It could make one want to have sex, I suppose.

Perhaps I should join Ba in his fast. Suddenly, it seems imperative that I, too, control my “behavior, sight, hearing and speech.”