Ramazan Recipe

Ramadan mubarak! (a blessed Ramadan!)

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calender and the most sacred of the twelve months. The name Ramadan derives from the Arabic word for intense heat and sun-scorched ground. A number of reasons have been advanced to explain the linguistic connection:

• It refers to the hot, dry sensation of thirst during this month of fasting
• Ramadan scorches out evil like the sun scorches the earth
• Just as heat shapes and influences all matter — organic and inorganic — so does Ramadan shape and influence the believer

Fasting

The koran mandates fasting during the month of Ramadan:

The month of Ramadan is that in which the Koran was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and the distinction; therefore whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast therein, and whoever is sick or upon a journey, then (he shall fast) a (like) number of other days... (sura 2.185, known as The Cow)

Fasting, or sawn, during the month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Sunni Islam.

Why fast?

• to develop patience and self-control
• to learn sympathy for the deprived
• to cleanse the body and mind
• to gain appreciation for Allah's bounty
• to demonstrate the depth of one's commitment
• to protect against sin. A hadith states: "Satan runs in the circulatory system of the son of Adam in the same way blood circulates in our system;