Ramadan

“I am too poor to buy food, so I cannot fast,” explained one beggar on the street. Indeed, in the month of fasting people seem to eat twice as much as usual. Every where already in days before Ramadan the prices for food gets up. The government declares, there is no need for worry, in the store houses there is enough food for the next months. Ramadan is a month long event in the Islamic world, prescribing its followers to fast as long as the sun shines, no food and no drinking, not even smoking.

Ramadan is visiting time, when the large extended families would visit each other at night to celebrate the fasting with a huge feast. During the night three or more meals would be prepared and eaten to energize the family for the next day of fasting. Breaking the fast in the evening is a special occasion to invite friends.

Patience and tempers wear thin by the end of the month as many are deprived of a decent rest or sleep. Hundreds of car accidents are reported in each city as people anxiously race to get home for the sunset meal. Everyone is quite relieved when the month finally ends with a public holiday and more celebrations.

For many this month is a religious pilgrimage to get closer to their god, to do good deeds, in the mosques will read in the Qur'an, the Holy Book, and to have some kind of supernatural experience that would elevate them to a higher state of faith.

Ten thousands of Christians pray for the Muslims during this month to have a revelation or dream of Jesus, a real experience of meeting God that would draw them closer to Himself. Since many do believe strongly in dreams and visions, God often reveals Himself to them in this way, putting them on a personal quest for the truth.