The Rhythms of Ramadan
April 21, 2021
Deseret News
Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, begins this week. While many Americans know that it involves fasting, what most don’t know is that the holiday also essentially flips day into night.
During Ramadan which commemorates the Prophet Muhammad’s receiving of the Quran Muslims stay up late praying more than usual, reading the Quran, eating and socializing. Together, all of these disrupted routines create a physical shift and, ideally, spiritual shift that helps them transcend the self and align with God.
“There’s a transformation that happens in the person when that shift takes place,” said Imam Mustafa Umar, religious director of the Islamic Institute of Orange County, California, and director of California Islamic University. “It might be that something about the nighttime and switching these rhythms makes us understand the world in a different way.”
Ramadan, the month that Muslims commemorate Muhammad’s receiving of the Quran, flips day and night, priming worshippers for a powerful spiritual experience, scientists say.