by B. R. GOWANI
Ramzan/Ramadan
In 610 CE, Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib felt a message from Allah through archangel Gabriel; thus began his mission of spreading Islam and Allah’s message. According to the Quran, Quran was revealed to Muhammad in the month of Ramzan.
In Islam, one whole month of Ramzan is devoted to fasting. The Islamic calendar is lunar, thus shorter than the solar year by 10 to 11 days; thus Ramadan comes in every season.
Quran 2:184–185;187 (Sahih International):
“[Fasting for] a limited number of days. So whoever among you is ill or on a journey [during them] – then an equal number of days [are to be made up]. …
“The month of Ramadhan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it. …”
“It has been made permissible for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sexual relations]. … And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset. And do not have relations with them as long as you are staying for worship in the mosques.”
Religious fasting is an old practice that is observed by believers of various faiths, including Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism. Many people also fast for medical, health, or other reasons.
For Sunni Muslims, fasting from dawn to sunset is one of the five pillars of Islam. The other four are declaration of faith, prayer, alms-giving, and pilgrimage. For Shia Muslims, see Ancillaries of the Faith for Twelvers and for Ismailis, see Seven Pillars of Ismailism.
Time variance
Today, Muslims are to be found all over the world. In some places especially the far northern hemisphere, time between a sunrise and sunset can exceed 20 hours, making the fasts very long.
- Sweden (Kiruna): 20 hours 30 minutes
- Norway: 20 hours 30 minutes
- Finland (Helsinki): 19 hours 9 minutes
- Iceland (Reykjavik): 19 hours 59 minutes
- Greenland (Nuuk): 20 hours
- Canada (Ottawa): 16.5 hours
- Algeria: 16 hours 44 minutes
- Scotland (Glasgow): 16.5 hours
- Switzerland (Zurich): 16.5 hours
- Italy (Rome): 16.5 hours
- Spain (Madrid): 16 hours
- United Kingdom (London): 16 hours
- France (Paris): 15.5 hours
Shortest Fasting Hours:
- Brasilia, Brazil: 12-13 hours
- Harare, Zimbabwe: 12-13 hours
- Islamabad, Pakistan: 12-13 hours
- Johannesburg, South Africa: 11-12 hours
- Montevideo, Uruguay: 11-12 hours
- Buenos Aires, Argentina: 12 hours
- Christchurch, New Zealand: 12 hours
- Dubai, UAE: 13 hours
- New Delhi, India: 12.5 hours
- Jakarta, Indonesia: 12.5 hours
- Madina, Saudi Arabia: 13 hours
- New York, USA: 13 hours (approx)
- Istanbul, Turkey: 13 hours (approx)
White thread of dawn
There are places where “the white thread of dawn” doesn’t show up for months because the Sun doesn’t set for months: Svalbard, Sweden gets no sunset for 1/3rd of the year, from about 19 April to 23 August. Same is the case with Finland’s northernmost point which is without sunset for 72 days in Summer.
The world’s northernmost mosque is in Tromso, Norway. Muslims living there had a serious problem as to what time they should offer fajr (dawn) prayers (and begin their fast or sehri) and perform the maghrib (sunset) prayer (and break their fast or iftari) as for two whole months, between May and July, the Sun never sets there.
Sandra Maryam Moe, deputy director of Alnor Senter in Tronso, Norway:
“We finally asked a shaykh in Saudi Arabia, and he gave us a fatwa [instruction] with three choices: Follow the timetable of Makkah, follow the timetable of the nearest city that does have a sunrise or sunset, or estimate the time and set a fixed schedule. We decided to follow Makkah for the part of Ramadan that falls under the Midnight Sun or Polar Nights, and then, for the other times, we follow our own sun.”
But not everyone follows the Mecca time. Two members of Al Rahma mosque, originally from France, follow the Paris time for sehri and iftari.
For most people, fasting for an entire month is not an easy or practical task, especially those whose daily-survival depends on hard labor. Muslims make a quarter of the world’s population and live in many countries, including those with Muslim majority. In many of these countries, eating or drinking anything during daytime in Ramzan is a crime.
Actually, it should be a crime to stop people from consuming food or drinking liquid at any time.
The Case of Mohammed Shami
On March 4, 2025, during a cricket match between Australia and India, Muslim Indian cricketer Mohammed Shami drank water or a beverage. A fellow Muslim, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, called him a “criminal” for drinking during Ramzan (watch the above video).
“The five important pillars of Islam include roza or fasting which is mandatory. If a sensible and healthy adult doesn’t observe the fast than that person would be guilty of great sin and be answerable in God’s court. India’s famous cricketer Mr. Mohammed Shami quenched his thirst during a cricket match. Everyone was watching him. Since he was playing the game, it meant he was healthy and robust. In this fit condition, he not only didn’t fast, but also drank water in front of everyone present. The world watched him drinking water. So, he became a source of conveying the wrong message to the people; and, by not fasting he committed a sin. He shouldn’t have done that. In the eyes of Islamic sharia, he is a criminal and a sinner. He’ll have to answer Khuda [God in Persian language].”
Translated in English from Hindi/Urdu from the above video.
If Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi thinks Mohammed Shami is “a criminal and a sinner,” and will have to answer Khuda than let Khuda take care of Shami rather than playing Khuda‘s Khuda. Like many people nowadays, he tried to stay in the news by creating news.
Shami was trolled online, with some supporting him and others criticizing him. Of course, a Hindutva leader from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party did not let this opportunity go to erroneously and overtly display his anti-Muslim rhetoric:
“We stand against such extremism. This is not a part of our Hindu religion. We say that in Islam, it is written, either you accept Islam, or you will be converted, or you will be killed. Now, even Mohammed Shami is experiencing this himself. This is why we praise our Hindu religion because such extremism does not exist in our faith,”
Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh, a Sikh, defended Shami:
“I think I just want to say that this is my personal view-I might be wrong or right. Sports should be treated separately. People who feel religion is playing this role or that role, I think it’s fine to kind of do your routine-what you do in your religion. But people expecting Shami to do this or Rohit Sharma to do this or any XYZ to do this or that during a certain period (is not fair).”
“You might be doing it because you are sitting at home or doing your own routine work. But when you are playing as a sportsman, if you don’t keep yourself hydrated, you might collapse.”
“And of course, with the kind of heat they are playing in, I think they need to drink water. They can’t go through the game without having a drink or a snack. It’s your body, after all-you need fuel.”
Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar commented indirectly:
“Roza is not an excuse. Its a motivation. Nothing should stop your from training. Use it in your benefit.”
One wonders what kind of inspiration one gets in 82 °F weather with a sweating body, hungry stomach, and dry mouth. Yes, some people have willpower or faith and can fast in extreme weather but not all people can. It would have been better if Akhtar had kept his mouth shut.
It is people like Akhtar who just don’t want people like Shami to emerge as inspiration for those who don’t want to fast but have to do so or have to pretend under pressure.
Decades back, I was visiting Karachi, a seaport and the largest city in Pakistan. I asked the driver to stop the vehicle by Rehmat-e-Shereen sweet shop — they make extremely delicious sweets. I bought the sweets and asked the driver to join me. He hesitated: “It’s Ramzan.” I asked: “Are you fasting?” The reply was in the negative. He parked the car in a quiet place and we enjoyed our goodies. This was not an isolated case. Many people have to pretend in public that they’re fasting because the atmosphere has gotten very fanatical.
Many Muslim countries have laws enforcing eating and drinking abstention.
Times have changed
Gods of all religions may have been omnipresent, but their knowledge of geography, technology, science, economy, physical, sexual, emotional needs, dehydration, and so on, was extremely limited. Knowledge of that time was dependent on the information of followers, whose knowledge was in turn restricted to the areas they resided in, or the places they journeyed and from the knowledge they gained from foreigners passing through their towns and cities.
When Muhammad died in 632, the Muslim territory consisted of a very small portion of present day Saudi Arabia. Check the map below where Mecca and Medina are shown in sky blue color. Yes, that small area was the first Islamic state.
Below is the map of today’s Saudi Arabia.
Anyone who believes s/he has a mission would want to see their message spread far and wide. But Muhammad may never have thought in his wildest dreams, that one day there would be so many Muslims all over the world. (Same is true of Christianity. It was Roman emperor Constantine the Great‘s conversion to Christianity in the 4th century that made it the world religion it is today.)
1/4th of world’s population today is Muslim. The following map shows countries around the world with estimates of Muslim population.
The Muslims during Muhammad’s time were a small community with a totally different pattern of life than what we find today. Today you visit Muslim majority countries and in most of them (non-Muslim countries too) you would find majority of people hustling trying to make ends meet in extreme heat and polluted environment, amidst:
- Corporations are busy looking for ways to cut cost and increase profit.
- Governments are busy carrying out demands of corporations and businesses to relax business laws as much as possible who in turn may bribe them for being “business friendly.”
- Clergy is busy issuing edicts and making common person’s life more miserable.
National Public Radio’s Diaa Hadid‘s report of May 2018 “Breaking Pakistan’s Ramadan Fasting Laws Has Serious Consequences” depicts the hell common people go through to survive and to take care of their family, but with an added burden of selling and consuming food and drink behind close door.
Ramzan is a problematic time for Pakistan’s poorest workers, many of whom don’t fast. Hadid was in an industrial city of Faisalabad where she visited a tea stall, near cotton-weaving factories. The owner Javed said people cannot eat outside but can eat inside the stall. Still he gets harassed by the authorities for extortion purpose.
“JAVED: (Through interpreter) If I stopped working, I can’t provide for my family. And if I don’t fast, I’m not considered a good Muslim.”
Then there is 50 year old Farid, who makes $230 a month and has to take care of 4 children.
FARID ABBAS: (Through interpreter) It’s really tough for us. Anyone who works for 16 hours, how can he fast?
In Karachi, Hadid met Dr. Sayid Tipu Sultan who supervises 3 hospitals.
SAYID TIPU SULTAN: It is very dangerous to fast in this terrible heat [around 110 degrees]. Dozens of people there died because of heatstroke.”
For cleric Saifallah Rabbani workers talking about difficulty in fasting during hot temperature is simply an excuse.
RABBANI: (Through interpreter) These are lame excuses. This is laziness. According to Islam, if they are Muslim, they should be fasting.
Hadid found liberal atmosphere at LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) in Lahore where Sher Ali, a Muslim who doesn’t fast, was drinking coffee. Sara, a Christian is also there. She avoids giving her last name for safety reasons.
SARA: Non-Muslims have been beaten up in the streets for, you know, they’ve been caught eating food in the past. And that’s happened in my hometown. So that’s a very oppressive side of, you know, this month that’s supposed to present piety and everything spiritual and love and what not.
This was Pakistan in 2018. Things haven’t got any better; but have gotten worse.
Dr. Sultan is so right but it’s clerics like Saifallah Rabbani who control the mike and the mob to unleash, when it serves their purpose. Neither the government nor the army has any time about these kind of issues.
Many other Muslim countries are harsh with people eating or drinking in public during Ramadan too. See here and here.
Progressive Muslims should raise their voices against this menace of clerics and religious authorities who are unjustly and cruelly forcing people to go without food and drink the whole month. Those who could eat or drink do it behind close doors but at the risk of violence and extortion.
B R. Gowani an be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com