Tag: Ramadan

Ramadan will begin tonight after sundown – or will it?

In 2020 the month of Ramadan will begin at sundown tonight Apr 23. Will it? That depends on what kind of Muslim you are. If you are a Sunni Muslim it begins right at sundown  on Apr 23. If you are a Shiite you also have to see the crescent moon after sunset, in the twilight. This usually occurs one day later , so for most Shiites Ramadan starts Apr 24. Ramadan starts every year 10 or 11 days earlier than the previous year, so in a century Muslims have 103 Ramadan months, and also 103 years.

During Ramadan you must observe a total fast from sunrise to sunset if you are a Sunni, if you are a Shiite you must fast from dawn to the end of twilight. The fasting is total, no eating, no drinking even if there is risk of dehydration during the hot summer days. As an extra prohibition, no sexual relations or vomiting is permitted during this time, and if you are temporary ill you must make up the time later so the total time of fasting is 30 days. This has its problems in northern latitudes if Ramadan occurs in the Summer, especially near or above the polar circle, you could go for more than a month without eating or drinking, so they have set a time limit for fasting, it doesn’t begin before 3 A.M. and doesn’t end after 9 P.M. sun time, not standard or daylight savings time.

All Muslims are encouraged to pray five times a day, kneeling down with the face near the ground facing Mecca. Muhammad and his followers used to face Jerusalem, but when they moved to Medina they changed direction and faced Mecca to distinguish them from the Jews, who faced Jerusalem.

During Ramadan these prayers become mandatory. Normally a Mosque looks like this during Ramadan prayer

This year is different. You are supposed to pray at home, but when do you start your prayer? It matters greatly when you do it. Luckily there are apps available that will tell all the proper time to start your prayers for over 3 million locations.

The times are FAJR (crack of dawn), Sunrise, DHUHR ( a couple of minutes past the Zenith of the sun, ASR (afternoon), Maghrib (Sunset), ISHA (end of twilight) and finally QIJAM (night prayer) which is voluntary for all except for Sufis which have to recite all 99 names of Allah starting right at midnight sun time. The noon prayer is very important, it must be started a couple of minutes after the sun passes its Zenith. To pray right through noon would be offensive to Allah.

Being a Christian am thankful to be able to go to the throne of grace, praying directly to God the Father in the name of Jesus at any time of the day or night. The door is always open.

 

On Fasting: Fasting for a time or fasting for a purpose?

In his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, General George Washington acknowledged a day of “fasting, humiliation and prayer” proclaimed by the Continental Congress to be held on Thursday, May 6, 1779. This has since been shortened to The National Day of Prayer  and is an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May, designated by the United States Congress, when people are asked “to turn to God in prayer and meditation“. Each year since its inception, the president has signed a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day.

Gone is the humiliation aspect. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds nowadays, to Abraham Lincoln in 1863 it meant: Whereas it is fit and becoming in all people at all times to acknowledge and revere the supreme government of God, to bow in humble submission to His chastisements, to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to pray with all fervency and contrition for the pardon of their past offenses…

On May 15, 1776, Gen. George Washington ordered:

“The Continental Congress having ordered Friday the 17th instant to be observed as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, humbly to supplicate the mercy of Almighty God, that it would please Him to pardon all our manifold sins and transgressions, and to prosper the arms of the United Colonies, and finally establish the peace and freedom of America upon a solid and lasting foundation; the General commands all officers and soldiers to pay strict obedience to the orders of the Continental Congress; that, by their unfeigned and pious observance of their religious duties, they may incline the Lord and Giver of victory to prosper our arms.”

Times have changed: The 2015 National day of prayer can be simplified to Obama asking for God’s continued guidance, mercy, and protection as we seek a more just world. 

Today, the aspect of humiliation is gone. Well, not altogether.

During a speech to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Hillary Clinton lamented that white Americans have a long way to go in realizing all the ways they’ve been given unfair advantages over the nation’s minority populations.

“White Americans must do a much better job of listening when African-Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers you face every day,” she said. “We need to recognize our privilege and practice humility rather than assume our experiences are everyone else’s experiences.”

So, I guess humility is not totally dead, it seems to be one of her strong points.

But I wanted to discuss fasting. 

Do we fast, and if so, why do we fast?

Let us see what scripture says about the subject. In Zechariah 7:4-5 the  prophet wrote: “ Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,  “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? 

This was a fast for a time.  The Muslim world holds a hard fast every Muslim year during the month of Ramadan, their 9th month, and since Islam is a lunar based religion with 12 lunar months making one year, Ramadan occurs 11 days earlier every year. This fast is to commemorate the revelation of the giving of the five mandatory contact prayers to be prayed by everybody at very specific times. As an example, the noon prayer must be started 2 min after the sun is in its zenith. To start it any earlier might offend Allah. This is not really a true fast, it is corporate mind control.

So, what is a true fast? In Isaiah 58:3-6 the prophet writes:

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’

“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And exploit all your laborers.
 Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
 Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?

 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

Jesus adds a new dimension to fasting. I Matthew 6:16-18 Jesus says:

 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,  so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Jesus says, when you fast, not if. We are urged to fast, individually, not as part of a group fasting in solidarity, but to seek God’s face, in other words, fast for a purpose.

As we fast, let us fast and pray for a purpose as is stated in 2 Chronicles 7:14

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.