A Time For Reflection: Take a look at hour some SM East students celebrate Ramadan

Sophomore Muhamad Marawi connects to the Islamic religion by fasting every day from sunrise to sunset

Sophomore Muhamad Marawi’s stomach was growling while sitting in his sixth-hour focus on foods class. But the soup that he and his classmates had just finished plating had to remain untouched until sunset.

For nearly 12 hours, Marawi will live off the bottle of water and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he scarfed down at 5 a.m. He won't be able to eat or drink anything while the sun is up.

“[At] lunch everyone's eating around [me], and I get a little hungry inside,” Marawi said. “The dehydration headaches are really bad.”

But this fasting connects Marawi to his religion during the most religious month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan. For 30 days — from Feb. 18 to March 19 — Muslims like Marawi and his family partake in a fasting period from sunrise to sunset.

This fasting period is to appreciate life’s privileges, according to Marawi. Muslims practice a month of fasting to show solidarity with those in need who are unwilling to fast. Fasting is one of the five Islamic pillars, pillars every islam must fulfill throughout their lifetime, and is mandatory for every Muslim who is both physically and mentally able to do so, Marawi says.

Every morning for 30 days, Marawi and his family wake up just before 6 a.m., depending on when the sun rises that day. He and his family say one of the five daily prayers and eat a normal breakfast.

“In the mornings, I don't usually have an appetite, so it's really something small,” Marawi said.

This is Marawi’s third year of fasting. Children must come of age before fasting, which in the U.S. is around eighth grade. Due to the age of Marawi’s fifth-grade brother, he only fasts for 15 of the 30 days in Ramadan.

When the sun finally sets, at around 6 p.m., Marawi and his family break their fast with a single date and some water, an Islamic tradition. Following is a dinner of multiple courses, including a mix of beans, vegetables and bread.

“After you eat [dinner], there's one extra prayer you can do during Ramadan,” Marawi said. “That one's around 7:15 at night, and you usually go to a mosque and then pray there.”

During the long days without food and water, the occasional looks or questions as to why Marawi doesn't eat any lunch don’t bother him. Once he explains the holiday, his classmates understand why he doesn’t eat at school.

“The teachers here, every single one I've talked to has known what [Ramadan] was,” Marawi said. “If [someone does] make a mistake, [they] usually apologize pretty fast.”

Senior Sarah Devkota celebrates Ramadan and uses it as a time to reflect

Hours of swim practice had passed by. Then-junior Sarah Devkota was treading through the SM East swimming pool, then her coach finally called for a five-minute break. 

While her teammates jumped out of the pool to drink water, Devkota sat aside and watched.

Devkota hadn’t eaten or drank water since before sunrise that day; the first weeks of Ramadan had started during her swim season.

Devkota’s coach offered to let her swim less, but she was determined to swim as much as she normally would.

“It's like a test. I’m like, ‘if I can do this, I can do anything’,” Devkota said.

Now a senior, Devkota and her family celebrate Ramadan to bring themselves closer to their faith, and reflect and practice gratitude for the opportunities and things they take for granted.

“We take into account the fact that we're getting an idea of what it's like to not have the privilege to have things like food,” Devkota said, “To us it’s a basic necessity and we literally don't think about it every day.”

Fasting is the main and most common practice of Ramadan, but there are other aspects of Ramadan for Devkota and her family, like praying more often and breaking each day’s fast with a date.

“Dates are significant to the culture,” Devkota said, "There's so many date dishes [and] they usually grow in Middle Eastern areas.”

For the first week of Ramadan, it’s difficult to acclimate to the roughly 12-hour fasting periods, according to Devkota. But after the first few days, it becomes a routine.

To celebrate and end off the month-long fasting period, Devkota’s family has a feast decked with many types of traditional pastries, one of the most common being paratha, a crispy flatbread.

While each day feels long during Ramadan for Devkota, as Ramadan comes to an end, it feels worth it.

“At the end, I feel like it happened so fast, even though each day feels a lot longer individually, but by the end, I'm like ‘that was nothing.’” Devkota said.