A Personal Account of an Initial Ramadan Fast

In the earlier years of my life, my religious experiences was very lenient. The younger you were the less rigorous it was. There is so much to learn, so it was best to learn early to pick fast on the criteria. My father explained to me, that Ramadan was one of the most important things to participate in the religion of Islam. Ramadan is a holy month for the Muslims, the goal of being a participant is to purify your sins that you have made. You must fast from sunrise to sunset, the required amount of days is 33, and you have to read the Quran by part each day. Ramadan is a tough transition towards young teenagers. Their body has to adapt to the fasting which is difficult, because teenagers tend to stay very active during the summer

In the beginning of my journey to a knowledgeable student of my dean, my father was teaching us the basics. There was many things to learn, the main thing was learning what your faith is all about. I struggled learning Arabic, I struggled retaining valuable information in the dean. There are steps that need to be made in order to participate in the holy month of Ramadan.. My father is really strict when it comes to religion, he was very hard on my brother and I. A lot of times knowing the Quran isn’t enough, during Ramadan I watch my dad read other Islamic books, like the Hadith which is the “99 names of Allah”. My father did the most, but he want us to follow his religious path, as he granted us that Ramadan will be very beneficial. I felt like everything that was brought upon was too fast. I wasn’t ready for the experience.

Around the age of 15, my father told me that this is the age where children start fasting. I was not paying it any attention until I noticed Ramadan was in 2 weeks. The worst thing is being an athlete while participating in the holy month. I was trying to find ways to get out of it, every excuse I could think of didn’t work with my father. I wasn’t getting out of it. Finally…it hit me.

It was more like hard times for me. I woke up 4 o clock in the morning, I didn’t want to get up, and so I pretended that I was in a deep sleep. My dad banged on my shoulder eventually I got up, because it felt like my shoulder was going numb. I know the morning prayers are short, so I was relieved by that, and the breakfast was a very large meal. I was surviving the entire day. My father told me I’m doing well, but it won’t truly hit you until your 4th day. I asked why, and he said that your body is going to have a hard time adjusting to your eating ways. It’s going to be difficult knowing that you can’t even drink water. I was upset when he told me that I couldn’t even drink water. The after the 4th day hit, I noticed that my meals were getting smaller and smaller. I was wondering what was going on, why is my dad still getting larger meals, but our meals are smaller each day. My mother always do that, I felt like that was wrong, which it is because my brother and I are athletes. During this time of the year it was football season. I couldn’t practice like I wanted. I was dehydrated and starving. I broke the rule, I just had to drink water. I got back home and my dad knew that I drank some water. My social life in the summer was limited, because of Ramadan. There is so much to do, the reading takes hours. My dad would questioned you about the parts, so he’ll know if you read it or not. I was doing my best and hanging in there. To make things go faster in the month of Ramadan is to find some way to have fun. I don’t know what I did but I had fun in some type of way. By the end of the day Ramadan was is its closing days, meaning it was ending soon. I was happier because the parts were shorter and things was starting to become lenient. The end of Ramadan, we celebrate for all of those who participated with us. Ramadan is a difficult month, but it allow us to reflect upon our own lives to make them better than what is it, becoming positive and purified internally.