Ramadan means no water during workouts for Husain Abdullah

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It's about 12 hours of no food and water, and you sleep through AT LEAST 3-4 hours of it. Big whoop.

If you hydrate yourself properly and distribute your meals appropriately you won't notice it other than mental irritation with not being able to eat. That mental irritation is a key reason for having Ramadan IMO.

That's where you learn how it feels to want food but not get it.

That's where you learn to not b**** n moan about your paltry few hours when there are people starving all over the world 24/7.

That's where you learn that shovelling food is a terrible thing for your body (though for some people it's the opposite lol) and how little food you actually need when your stomach is not stretched out like a balloon.

That's where you really feel guilty about throwing out a piece of chicken or a bowl of rice.

That's where you really start to value companionship isolated from food, water, sex, etc. Many people, for example, realize that they are incapable of having a decent conversation with their SO and that they usually just eat or watch TV or have sex.

That's also where you get to know yourself. You'll notice that you may complain too much about things, may be overly picky, etc. It really brings you down to earth like that.

Finally, it's where you take all those lessons, purify yourself spiritually, and then transfer your lessons into actual good deeds. This is why we send food to people, give more charity, do more volunteer work, smile more, pray more, spend more time with people who you value dearly, spend less money on unnecessary things, etc.

It is truly awesome. I recommend you try it, even if for a few days, just to get a feel for the effect it can have on you.

I noticed there are people who are wondering "why would God want this? or care about this?". It's quite simple. It's from Him, but it's for YOU.

 

TUNISIA: Breaking the Fast
Monday, Feb. 22, 1960

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939596,00.html#ixzz0wCQT7A9O

Just as the Christian Lent produced the custom of Mardi gras, so the Moslem fast of Ramadan, ninth and holiest month of the lunar calendar,* has long led to peculiar accommodations in Islamic countries. For 29 or 30 days every year, the devout, who must abstain from food, drink, tobacco and sex from dawn to sundown, make up for it by overindulging and undersleeping during the hours of darkness. When Ramadan, on its 32-year migration through the solar calendar, happens to fall in summer, many a weary Moslem gives up, sleeps the whole fasting day through. Tempers grow short, and politics and propaganda a little sharper.

Little work gets done in Ramadan.

Tunisia's modern-minded President Habib Bourguiba, a Moslem himself, regards Ramadan as so much cultural excess baggage. He has already officially abolished the veil in Tunisia and introduced European notions of marriage and divorce in place of Islamic laws, in which women have little or no rights. Then he set to work on Ramadan, a custom which he believes helps hold Islamic countries in "stagnation, weakness and decadence." Last year in Ramadan he imposed midnight curfew on coffeehouses and other soots where revelers congregated until dawn.

Last week Bourguiba went all the way.

Before a political meeting in a Tunis movie house, he called Ramadan, with its positive requirements of prayers and meditation, a religiously "beautiful custom" that in practice too often is a "pretext that paralyzes our activity." He shocked his hearers by urging them not to fast during Ramadan, which begins Feb. 29. As a clinching argument, Bourguiba recalled that even Mohammed, when inconveniently overtaken by Ramadan on his march to Mecca, counseled his soldiers: "Break the fast, and you will be stronger to confront the enemy." Today's enemy for Tunisia, said Bourguiba, is the "humiliating backward condition of our country." It remained to be seen whether progressive-minded President Bourguiba, for all his political strength, could break a custom of centuries.

* Commemorating Allah's revelation of the Koran to Prophet Mohammed.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939596,00.html#ixzz0wCQZa4iy

 

Going out on a limb here....

I'm a Christian, but I've never given up anything for Lent.

I'm married into a Catholic family, and, although they won't eat meat on Fridays during during Lent, I always indulge.

I've never fasted. I will never fast.

I think that sacrificing diet and water for religion is yet another one of those really, really stupid things that religious people do.

That's just me, I guess.

 

I'm going out on a limb and saying that this isn't Husain Abdullah's first Ramadan. He played sports in high school and college, at least, and survived.

I think he'll be ok.

 

Please explain.

DD

 

I feel it's a little...pompous to call out what religious people do as "really, really stupid." If you don't agree with it, that's cool, but fasting doesn't have to be about religion. Sacrificing something every now and then to remind you of how good you have it isn't a bad thing.

 

Excuse me?

I don't do any of those things either and I'm Muslim. I am very grateful for everything I have in life. I don't think I have to show Allah that I love him by starving myself.

Also don't think Allah appreciates people judging each other which I try to avoid as much as possible.

Again, think and hope God has much better things to worry about then whether some people are purposefully starving themselves or not.

 

religious tolerance is evidence of an evolved spirit

 

I like where this thread is going.

 

You mean like poverty and war? Not a whole lot being done about those...

 

When you climb down from your religious high-horse, you may realize that you're really not more "grateful" than others (even if you fast).

In history, there have been a gajillion different religions and people have done a gajillion different stupid things for their religion. It's my opinion that this another one of those stupid things. You're right, I sound pompous when I say that. Don't mean to sound that way. Just don't feel like sugar-coating it.

 

No prob, bob, you're one of my favorite posters on the board. I think fasting is a good idea every now and then, but maybe that's just the masochist in me :grin:

 

Wow! I don't think anyone's ever said that. Now I feel bad.

Sending rep your way!

 

I can understand why you wouldn't want to do it, but how is it stupid to fast? Unlike many of the gajillion stupid things that people have done for their religions, this one isn't hurting anyone. And some people actually come out better for it because it's a good test of discipline.

 

I personally think it's silly and I would not do it, but I can respect it. It's one of those things that people decide for themselves that they want to do it, it is not intolerant toward others, so I have absolutely no problem with it.

Edit: But I find it interesting how quickly people who do it become judgmental about people (other Muslims) who don't. That, I cannot respect. If it is a personal decision, leave it up to each individual and don't judge them based on whether they do it or not.

 

stuff like this in religion is silly.

i hope the guy is ok through this though. running drills in hot weather with no water? geez.

 

So, aside from the ridiculous "I'm doing it to show my dedication to God" ...

It's been said here that people fast in order to achieve a certain level of gratitude.

"Wow - now that I haven't eaten in 8 hours, I'm super-hungry! I really appreciate having food!"

DUH! Who needs to fast to figure that out? Anybody who's ever been hungry knows knows this.


It's also been said, as you pointed out, that some people wish to test their discipline.

So why not test your discipline in ways that are constructive to your health? Testing your self-discipline in ways that are physically unhealthy is .... well, idiotic.