Ramadan goes later, longer and hotter

updated 9:57 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2009

DETROIT - During most of his high school football career, Baquer Sayed broke the Ramadan fast during halftime, when the stadium lights began to flood the field after sundown.

With the traditional sunrise-to-sunset fast set to last a few hours longer this year because of where it falls in the Islamic calendar, the heavily recruited wide receiver at suburban Detroit's Fordson High is going to have to hold out until after the final whistle.

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, will begin in August for the first time in 33 years this year. Moreover, it will be creeping deeper into summer for each of the next seven years because the Islamic lunar calendar is roughly 11 days shorter than the international solar calendar. That means Muslims in the U.S. face longer, hotter days of religious devotion because of longer, hotter summer days — and that Sayed will play before recruiters on an empty stomach this year.

He hopes it could mean some divine help on the gridiron.

"You'll get rewarded, it'll come back to you in a good way. Hopefully it will come back to me during the game," Sayed, a lanky, 6-foot-3 senior said.

When Muslim-Americans gather Friday night to begin celebrating, they will enter a time of religious devotion including abstention from food, drink, smoking and sex during a time that commemorates the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad.

Appreciating fasting
Religious leaders see the change in the calendar as an opportunity for increased faithfulness, but worry that participation by the young, interfaith activities and the ramped-up social schedule will suffer because activities will be pushed later into the night.

Religious leaders also believe greater challenges offer a heightened spiritual experience.

"The extended days in the summer really allow you to feel fasting in a more true sense because we live oftentimes, especially in the West, in very cushy lifestyles where we're not really out sweating and feeling the pain of hunger, especially in the winter," said Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs for the Islamic Center of Southern California. "It's really the summer that lets your truly appreciate fasting for what it is. It should be somewhat arduous and uncomfortable and challenging to your daily routine."

At mosques, the change could present scheduling problems. Many mosques use the month of Ramadan as an opportunity to reach out to other faith communities, aiming to foster dialogue about religious issues.

The Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, one of the country's largest mosques, is usually an active participant in such conversations. This year, though, with an evening program beginning at 9:30 p.m., it will be more difficult to schedule interfaith events, said Eide Alawan, head of the mosque's Office of Interfaith Outreach. Alawan said the traditional Islamic lectures that accompany each day of Ramadan will push the program late into the night, making it difficult to schedule talks with rabbis or Christian clergy, for example, as the clock ticks past 10 p.m.

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