In the Fast Lane : : : :

For 30,000 Muslims in Britain the end of this term is a testing time. Exams and studies must be worked around Ramadan. Abul Taher reports

Tuesday December 12, 2000
The Guardian

But for an estimated 30,000 Muslim students, there will be no such celebrations, as most of them are busy observing Ramadan, which this year falls in December. This period, which covers the most sacred 30 days in the Islamic calendar, is marked by Muslims across the world with fasting (complete abstinence from food and drink) from sunrise to sunset and by spending extra hours in devotion and spiritual contemplation.

Islamic societies across Britain's campuses have been active holding special religious sermons and lectures to inform and educate their members on the significance of a month when partying and clubbing are especially frowned upon.

At Leicester University, which has perhaps the most prominent student Islamic society in the UK, students strive to fulfil both their stringent religious duties and their academic responsibilities, some of them having done their exams in the middle of their fast.

"I knew Ramadan was going to fall during my exams, and I prepared for it," says Rasheed Akhtar, 20, a medical student.

Despite his numerous exams and course-work, Rasheed has not yet broken a fast, nor does he intend to, not with just three more days before the end of term. On the contrary, he says, Ramadan helps him to become more disciplined. "It helps you to develop self-control. You have to eat at the right time and pray at the right time. It definitely disciplines your lifestyle," he says.

However, the third-year medic admits that Ramadan does make studying that much more demanding, as he has to get up earlier - usually around 5am - to have a pre-dawn meal (sehri), which is a religious requirement for all those intending to fast during the day.

Also, much of his evening time, which he would normally devote to revision and completing course work, is taken up by lengthy Ramadan prayers which are also obligatory.

But the devout Muslim does not have any complaints, even though he is necessarily having to work much harder than his non-Muslims peers. His only regret, he says, is that his whole university work is actually disrupting his Ramadan devotions. "During Ramadan, you want to worship more, read the Koran more. I feel my study disrupts Ramadan, which is about remembrance of God."

For those Muslim students not as disciplined as Rasheed, Ramadan is a testing time. "Ramadan has increased the stress on me," admits Mohammed Shafiq, who is reading economics. "At the moment I'm finding it OK, but my deadlines are due. The fasting and the getting up early in the morning makes me tired throughout the day."

Shafiq, 20, who says he is a "middle-of-the-road Muslim", has all the stress of being a final-year student in a difficult discipline. He admits his time-management is somewhat lacking, which doesn't help when both religion and academia are demanding so much simultaneously.

Not only is the workload great but there is also the stress of filling up lengthy job application forms, all of which must be sent in before the end of the month.

For him Ramadan has come at a bad time. He says it is a "double dose of exams" for him this year. "First of all, Ramadan is a sort of an exam. It's a test of one's faith. And then straight after that, I've got all my real exams in January."

So far he has missed a few lectures because he couldn't get up on time due to the erratic sleeping habits Ramadan has brought on. Fortunately, his lecturers and tutors have been understanding and respect his religious devotions.

Despite all these difficulties, Mohammed admits Ramadan has been easier this year for all Muslims in Britain, as the holy month has conveniently fallen in December, when the days are the shortest.

Historically, in the month of Ramadan, the first Koranic verses were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed in the year AD 610. So Muslims mark this month by striving for spiritual and moral edification through sacrifice, abstinence and self-study. But since the Islamic calendar is lunar, the Muslim year always goes back 11 days against the Gregorian calendar, so Ramadan is never fixed.

Some students recall times a few years back when Ramadan fell during summer and the days were longer and hotter. "Then it was an act of faith," says one student.

But fasting in a university campus in the west has other difficulties and peculiarities. Rumana Kabir, 20, a third-year psychology and sociology student, says Muslims become more visible during Ramadan because they are fasting. They are constantly quizzed by other "astounded" students. "They think you are affected by it more than you really are."

Her friend, Layla Fitzwilliam-Hall, who was born to parents who converted to Islam, says she often finds the non-Muslim reaction to fasting "quite frustrating" - especially when they see her observing it. "A lot of people find it strange when they see a white person practising Ramadan or Islam," says the 21-year old.

Even the president of the Islamic Society, Tushar Bhuiya, 20, has not been exempt from the "frustrations" that Layla has experienced from fellow students not familiar with Islam. Living in a hall of residence, he recalls one night when he was reciting the Koran in his room. Everyone else on his corridor thought he had started singing in a strange way.

Tushar, who is reading law, says another difficulty of observing Ramadan is that there is always "temptation around you" in campus.

"In my corridor alone, there is drinking going on all the time," he says. And he adds that since sex and alcohol are present everywhere all the time, people can unwittingly break their fast through human weaknesses like sexual arousal, which one must also abstain from.

"There's a lot of temptation around you to morally break the fast," he says.

Yet for Muslim students at British campuses, Ramadan has numerous benefits as well, one of which is the sense of community it produces.

Tushar, who organises communal on-campus evening meals to end the fast (iftar), says such Islamic Society events become the focal point for all Muslims, as does the prayer room.

"During Ramadan, you see people attend prayers and iftar, who you never knew were Muslims before," says Tushar.

And since Muslims at universities are from different ethnic and national backgrounds, they tend to stay in their groups throughout the year. But Tushar says that during Ramadan they break these national barriers and mingle with each other on the same dinner table.

"There are Nigerians, Malaysians, Chinese as well as home students, who gather together during Ramadan. It truly becomes international."

To Layla, who finds it difficult to belong to a "national Muslim group," being white Anglo-Saxon, Ramadan is a time to see the diversity of Islam and the unity its faith produces. And while she is part of both the western and Islamic ways of life, she says she still prefers Islam.

"Muslims are more friendly and community-based. They are not so individualistic" - characteristics that are most visible during Ramadan.