what do you know about Ramadan ?
Hello everyone
And welcome to another post of "story time " , I wanted to write this post a while ago directly after Ramadan but unfortunately for some reasons I couldn't .
Probably you read or heard from the media or must be told by a Muslim friend about Ramadan .
Probably you read or heard from the media or must be told by a Muslim friend about Ramadan .
What is Ramadan ??
Ramadan is a holy month in Islam . in this month Muslims fast from dawn till sunset , for 30 or 29 days straight .
Do all Muslims fast ?
No , not all Muslims are allowed to fast like children , old people , women during their period , pregnant women , those who travel , if the person is ill or have a chronic disease ...
But in some cases we have to re-fast those days like if someone is sick he isn't obligated to fast so if he eats for like 3 days , after Ramadan he must re fast those 3 days in other hand this rule doesn't apply to children , old people or those who have a chronic disease .
How do Arabic countries prepare for Ramadan ??
Ramadan comes only 1 time a year , it is a very special guest for us .
Before Ramadan each family start changing the home decor , buying new dishes and kitchen stuff ...
Even the streets will be decorated with lights in some countries like Egypte they decorate houses and streets with fanous in different sizes and shapes .
The traditional food isn't only different from a country to another but also from a city to another . In our table at iftar time there is always burak , chorba , sharbat .... and for desert - my favorite part - kalb el louz , ktayef , different kind of zlabia .
My journey in Ramadan
This is not only my journey but it's all Muslims journey too . i wake up before an hour to alfajar at like 3 am ( time is different from country to another ) to prepare our table and start eating , this is called shoor then at adhan alfajar we start fasting .always the first 2 or 3 days are difficult but after that we use to it .
i go to sleep then wake up at 8 am to go to university and i finish at like 2 sometimes 3 pm . Take nape , helping me mother in the kitchen and preparing table then waiting for adhan Al magrahab to break our fasting which was about at 8:15 pm .
At night usually Muslims pray salat tarawih at masjad or for those who don't go like me , we read Quran .
And at 11 it's sahra time with zlabia , kalb el louz ... this sweets are sold only in Ramadan but form time to time we can find them my favorite one called zlabia boufarik .
After that you find 2 kinds of people those who sleep at 12 am then weak up at 3am and those who are still awake till 3 .
For me this Ramadan was different because of my studies , usually I would sleep then wake up again , But this time I started revising my lessons at night while everyone was enjoying .
This is my routine for 30 days .
10 or 15 days before Ramadan end , Muslims start preparing for Eid which is the first day of the next month shawl , we buy new clothes , decorate the house , make cakes , buy balloons and games for kids ... Those days are really special , I don't know how to explain it but they have another taste , I mean don't you feel happy when you're preparing for Christmas .
What does science say about fasting ?
Fasting has both physical and psychological benefits .
let's start with the physical benefits :
- fasting 1 or 2 days a week can improve risks factor related to heart health . according to what we study at university the cholestrol is transported by lipoprotien , the 2 most important type is LDL and HDL . the LDL transport the cholestrol to organs but HDL to the liver where there is its metabolisme , as we always say at med school LDL is the bad one and HDL the good one . so if LDL rate increase that will lead to formation of an atheroma plaque which block the artery , if it is coronary artery that's will lead to MI .
- decrease the risk of diabetes type 2 , i am going to explain why : adipose tissue cover insuline receptor which are located in muscluse and liver and that's why the insline can not fix on its own receptor so there isn't a stimulation of the cells to stoke the glucose and that why the glucose rate in blood increase .
- a study shows that fasting starve cancer cell and facilitates the chemo drug therapy , for more information read this article .
of course there is more benefits than that but i mentioned the most important 3 ones . moving now to the psychological benefits :
- brain dreived neurotrophic factor - BDNF- is a protien which increase during fasting and interact with neurons . BDNF helps to reduce depressive symptoms .
- increasing of BDNF inhibits memory loss , neuronal death and congnitive impairment .
- improve sleep quality . people who sleep the recommended daily hours have improved in physical and psychological health .
fasting and other religions
fasting isn't only part of islam , it' also part of Christianity and Judaism .
in Christianity there is the daniel fast which is between 3 to 21 days , and Lent, people fast for 40 days .
in Judaism , there is yum kippur known by the day of Atonement .
Ramadan comes only 1 time a year , it is a very special guest for us .
Before Ramadan each family start changing the home decor , buying new dishes and kitchen stuff ...
Even the streets will be decorated with lights in some countries like Egypte they decorate houses and streets with fanous in different sizes and shapes .
The traditional food isn't only different from a country to another but also from a city to another . In our table at iftar time there is always burak , chorba , sharbat .... and for desert - my favorite part - kalb el louz , ktayef , different kind of zlabia .
My journey in Ramadan
This is not only my journey but it's all Muslims journey too . i wake up before an hour to alfajar at like 3 am ( time is different from country to another ) to prepare our table and start eating , this is called shoor then at adhan alfajar we start fasting .always the first 2 or 3 days are difficult but after that we use to it .
i go to sleep then wake up at 8 am to go to university and i finish at like 2 sometimes 3 pm . Take nape , helping me mother in the kitchen and preparing table then waiting for adhan Al magrahab to break our fasting which was about at 8:15 pm .
At night usually Muslims pray salat tarawih at masjad or for those who don't go like me , we read Quran .
And at 11 it's sahra time with zlabia , kalb el louz ... this sweets are sold only in Ramadan but form time to time we can find them my favorite one called zlabia boufarik .
After that you find 2 kinds of people those who sleep at 12 am then weak up at 3am and those who are still awake till 3 .
For me this Ramadan was different because of my studies , usually I would sleep then wake up again , But this time I started revising my lessons at night while everyone was enjoying .
This is my routine for 30 days .
10 or 15 days before Ramadan end , Muslims start preparing for Eid which is the first day of the next month shawl , we buy new clothes , decorate the house , make cakes , buy balloons and games for kids ... Those days are really special , I don't know how to explain it but they have another taste , I mean don't you feel happy when you're preparing for Christmas .
What does science say about fasting ?
Fasting has both physical and psychological benefits .
let's start with the physical benefits :
- fasting 1 or 2 days a week can improve risks factor related to heart health . according to what we study at university the cholestrol is transported by lipoprotien , the 2 most important type is LDL and HDL . the LDL transport the cholestrol to organs but HDL to the liver where there is its metabolisme , as we always say at med school LDL is the bad one and HDL the good one . so if LDL rate increase that will lead to formation of an atheroma plaque which block the artery , if it is coronary artery that's will lead to MI .
- decrease the risk of diabetes type 2 , i am going to explain why : adipose tissue cover insuline receptor which are located in muscluse and liver and that's why the insline can not fix on its own receptor so there isn't a stimulation of the cells to stoke the glucose and that why the glucose rate in blood increase .
- a study shows that fasting starve cancer cell and facilitates the chemo drug therapy , for more information read this article .
of course there is more benefits than that but i mentioned the most important 3 ones . moving now to the psychological benefits :
- brain dreived neurotrophic factor - BDNF- is a protien which increase during fasting and interact with neurons . BDNF helps to reduce depressive symptoms .
- increasing of BDNF inhibits memory loss , neuronal death and congnitive impairment .
- improve sleep quality . people who sleep the recommended daily hours have improved in physical and psychological health .
fasting and other religions
fasting isn't only part of islam , it' also part of Christianity and Judaism .
in Christianity there is the daniel fast which is between 3 to 21 days , and Lent, people fast for 40 days .
in Judaism , there is yum kippur known by the day of Atonement .
4 التعليقات
Thank you for explaining this! I've heard of Ramadan, but I've never understood it beyond it being a fasting time.
ReplyDeleteyou are welcome i am so happy that you enjoyed this post
DeleteInteresting. If you'd asked me how much I knew about Ramadan I would have probably said very little, turns out I knew more than I thought. I have so much respect for people that manage this for a full month. It must be so hard to keep energy up for school/ work x
ReplyDeleteSophie
www.glowsteady.co.uk
thank you sophie for your comment , i am glad that you found this post useful :)
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