fasting the first day

Day one of Ramadan:

My first real day of voluntary Ramadan fasting – a much different take on the Holy Month than my time in Jordan when I would stand out in the sun for hours in public, unable to eat, or drink except when scarfing down a snickers bar in the secrecy of a bathroom stall, or swigging a drop of water before leaving for work.

As I began my daily routine, I realized I had all sorts of questions about the dos and don’t of fasting. So I call up my teammate.

“Am I allowed to brush my teeth”

“Yes, but don’t swallow it”

“Make up? Am I allowed to wear make up?”

“You’re not supposed to wear make up in the first place, but it’s not something strict here, so do whatever”

“Deoderant?”

“yes, you can, but no extra perfume”

Whew. The usual 45 minutes it takes me to get ready is drastically cut down by the lack of this whole breakfast thing. Quite convenient. Off to the office I go, where I spend the day looking at my tongue trying to see if it is turning white yet, a sure sign that you are fasting and not drinking water, and reading about various rules and regulations of Ramadan. Some key ones:

The things which invalidate the fast are of two kinds. The first one requires Qada (only making up missed days), the other one not only requires Qada but also Kaffarah(a penalty).

The following are the things that require Qada only:

1. Eating or drinking intentionally. This includes non-nourishing items taken by mouth.
2. Deliberately causing oneself to throw up.
3. The beginning of menstruation or post-childbirth bleeding even in the last moment before sunset.
4. Ejaculation for reasons other than sexual intercourse.
5. Intending to break the fast before sunset even if one changes his mind, since intention is one of the pre-requisites of the validity of fasting.
6. Eating, drinking or having intercourse after dawn on the mistaken assumption that it is not dawn yet. Similarly, engaging in these acts before Maghrib on the mistaken assumption that it is already sunset.

Things that not only require Qada but also Kaffarah are the following:
1. Sexual intercourse during fasting(dawn to dusk). The penalty is to fast an additional period of 60 continuous days. If one is not able to do so then he must feed sixty poor people-one average meal each.

2. Before the days of the Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W.), slavery was a common practice in the Arab world. Islam eliminated slavery from the society in a very short period of time. A useful approach was to allow people free a slave as a charity or as a penalty for a sin. Thus during the time of the Prophet(S.A.W.), setting a slave free was the penalty one must pay as a kaffarah, if he or she had a slave. *

*from Islam for Today

Overall the fasting was not as difficult as anticipated – the most challenging moment was standing at this sweets store for 45 minutes, waiting in line as the workers furiously cut the various sweets and loaded them onto paper trays overwhelmed by the weight of sugar and honey.

It all ended with rather untraditional but entirely delcious southeast Asian iftar of khawaget, ie foreigners, complete with wonderful tom yum soup, pad thai and chicken in peanut sauce. As the first part of the call to prayer ended I munched on my dates and drank a glass of milk, happily closing my first official day of Ramadan in Cairo.