Yesterday marked the first day of the Fast of Ramadan for observant muslims in the United States. From sun up to sun down, they will not eat or drink. Special prayers will be said each night for the next 28 days. The holiday ends with the Feast of Eid al-Fitr, which will last for three days. I'm expecting this to occurr around Oct. 24th. The fasting is meant to remind muslims of the suffering experienced by the less fortunate. Acts of charity are expected during this month as well.

 

 

For anyone who doesn't know, I teach at the only public school in the US that requires all students to take Arabic as a second language. About two thirds of our student body is muslim. Because I have the older students, the ones who are beginning to take on the adult responsibilities in their communities, I'm expecting quite a few students to be fasting tomorow morning. The kids will be kind of nuts about it for a week, then they settle down. Inshallah.

 

Anyways, just wanted to let our muslim members know we're thinking about them this month.

Ramadan Karim to you too :)

Happy Ramadan to all our muslim members :D

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Cool, i have a number of friends who are muslim =)

 

Ramadan Karim to you too

just out of curiosity, what does 'Karim' mean? i've heard "Ramadan Mubarak" before but not "Ramadan Karim". I assume though they mean something similiar?

More or less the same meaning. Mubarak = blessed, Karim = kind; it doesn't work as a literal translation but they're both just goodwill wishes.

Ramadan Karim to all of you it concerns. :D

 

And just as every year, I pondered joining in on the fasting-part of it, but I'm too addicted to coffee for that to work :roll:

I can barely handle my students fasting. There's no way I could do it with them.

The only thing that would be a real problem for me is the coffee, I simply don't function normally if I don't get a few cups every day.

 

The food would be a piece of cake, it happens on a regular basis that I don't eat anything until around midnight just because I forget about it...