2008 Woodie Awards
Students break daily Ramadan fast together
Daniel Deza
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: News
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Northeastern, however, offers daily services in the sacred space to nearby college students who can come together to feel the sense of community they left behind back at home.
"There aren't as many Muslims at our school so you can feel lonely when no one knows what Ramadan is," said Dalia Fares, a sophomore at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services. "You don't have your family here to wake you at four in the morning to eat."
During Ramadan, the Spiritual Life Center has promoted Ramadan services and many other religious events and have also worked close with the International Students and Scholars Institute (ISSI) and the Islamic Society by providing a room for the daily prayers.
For Muslims, Ramadan is the most holy month of the year. For 30 days, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset followed by an Iftar.
Iftar is the evening meal for breaking the daily fast; traditionally a date is the first thing to be consumed. Iftar during Ramadan is meant to bond family and friends and build a stronger community within the Islamic religion.
The general misconception of Ramadan is that it is the month where Muslims starve themselves for 30 days straight, said Nadia Alshamarri, a freshman biochemistry major
She and freshman international affairs major Saja Kamal are friends from Saudi Arabia who are spending their first Ramadan in the United States and away from their family and friends. While certain freshmen start feeling homesick in the month of September, Alshamaarri and Kamal are learning to transition into a new culture as well as trying to balance an early class schedule that can conflict with their daily fasting cycle.
The Islamic month of Ramadan is celebrated and associated into everyday life in Saudi Arabia, from the ornate decorations around the cities to the routine reminders of when prayers should be said for that specific day.
"Many people think we don't eat for 30 days straight but we actually do eat, we eat in the morning before the sun comes out and later in the evening," Alshammari said. "Many people don't know what fasting really stands for, and how it is an act of deep personal worship in where Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to good. It is meant to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm."
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