Ramadan Prayer Times

Ramadan Prayer Times

Ramadan has begun this year, marking the start of a spiritual boot camp in which Muslims fast without any food or water from sunup to sundown. To many, the rigor may seem too tasking, but, as a veteran scientist of clinical nutrition and as a 76-year-old Muslim man who has fasted since I was a boy, growing up in India, I can say that fasting can be a healthy practice not just for God but for you. Fasting can be healthy for people of all faiths from Christians to Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and others who fast as a part of their spiritual practice. But it's got to be done right. Twenty-five years ago in the early 1980s, I started studying the biochemical and physiological impact of "restricted energy intake," as we call fasting in the business, on the human body, using Ramadan fasting as a model for clinical trials that I ran in the United States and Pakistan. In my hometown of Morgantown, W.V., young Muslim students volunteered to be my guinea pigs, logging their daily meals. In the Middle East and in Lahore, Pakistan, volunteers let me study the effect of fasting on their bodies, analyzing the nutritional component of their diets using food composition tables and computer software.

What I and other researchers have discovered is that fasting has clear spiritual, physical, psychological and social benefits. There is no doubt, on one level, we are fasting for God. Just like fasting during Lent for Christians and during Yom Kippur for Jews, fasting during Ramadan has a divinely ordained inspiration. The Qur'an (2: 183) tells Muslims, "O you who believe, fasting is prescribed on you as it was prescribed to those before you (that is Jews and Christian and other faiths) so that you may become self-restrained." It's considered "fard," or required, for healthy Muslim adults to fast. It's called "sawm" in Arabic, which means "refrain," and Muslims are expected to refrain from not only food and water but also from sex, smoking, foul talk and harm to others. We are supposed to control our anger, behave kindly, participate in community service, give to charity and generally help others.

The restrictions--both caloric and behaviorally--can be good for us holistically because they serve as a means for disciplining ourselves all-year-around in a world in which we are too often self-absorbed and overindulgent. Fasting serves as a spiritual check, reminding us about issues of poverty and clean water supplies in the world and encouraging us to avoid overeating and wasting food. After all, way too much food ends up in garbage cans. Restraint from food, water and undesirable behavior makes a person more mentally disciplined and less prone to unhealthy behavior. Researchers in Jordan found a significant reduction of parasuicidal cases during the month of Ramadan. In the United Kingdom, the Ramadan model has been used by various health agencies to reduce cigarette smoking, especially among Africans and Asians. During Ramadan, research has shown that the basal metabolism of fasting subjects slows down. A person can stay healthy and active during Ramadan consuming a diet that is less than the normal amount of calories or food intake but balanced in nutrients.