For Muslims living in European countries and closer to the Arctic circle, Ramadan is becoming more and more challenging every year. In countries like Finland and Norway, the sun sets for barely three hours. That means Muslims have to fast for more than 20 hours, after which they only have a few hours to eat, drink and prepare for another long stretch of fasting. “The longer hours of fasting is a challenge for me in many ways,” said Yaser Javed, an electrical engineering student in Sweden. “As I am a student and a part-time worker, it gets hard for me to cook for myself, to study and to get my work done while I’m fasting till 9 pm.”
Despite the challenges, Javed said he’s still motivated to fast because the holy month of Ramadan only comes once a year and is a way for him to strengthen his religious beliefs. Ibrahim Afridi, a student in Norway, feels the same. “I feel happy and good to see that I am really achieving the goal of self-restraint. What motivates me is that fasting is the only worship which is for Allah alone,” he said. But some Muslims have raised concerns over whether any exceptions can be made to allow them to fast according to the time in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city in Saudi Arabia, where fasts are observed for around 13 hours.
But according to well-known Muslim scholar Imam Zaid Shakir, as long as there is visible sunrise and sunset then Muslims should fast according to the times of the country they are in living in. “The length of their day in the summer months will be compensated by the short fast they will experience in the winter months. The fasting is only 29 or 30 days so they can endure hardships, especially when these regions are generally cool during the summer months, “ he says.
Read more: Fasting for long: Challenge of Ramadan in Europe | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper
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