Ramadan has come and gone, as the celebration started on March 10 and ended on April 9. Ramadan is a month spent fasting from sunrise to sunset by people of the Islamic faith as a commemoration of Muhammad’s first revelation. As such, the month is spent in reflection devoted to their God.
According to sophomore Zakariya Salat, Ramadan is a sanctified month for his family where they repent.
“Ramadan, for me, is a month when I fast and ask for repentance from my God,” said Salat. “(It is) a month that is very sacred to me and my family.”
According to Principal LaNisha Paddock, Park instituted a room for Muslim students, so they had a place to relax during the lunch hour while other students went to eat.
“We put protocol in place so that folks are able to have a space when they’re fasting. We have a classroom space where they can just sit quietly and play games and chat — just the kind of place that’s not around food, (as) they still have to fast,” said Paddock. “ (The room) is just a space for them to not have to be around and hear food noises.”
Junior Ali Payday said the accommodations for Muslim students were helpful. According to him, it gave the students a way to ease the struggle of fasting.
“There haven’t been any issues. The school has been helpful this year, giving us space to chill while people go out to eat lunch,” Payday said. “It’s easier to fast when you aren’t surrounded by things that will cause you hunger.”
The institution of these accommodations is not random and hasn’t come from nowhere. According to Paddock, they have been setting them up for many months.
“For our protocol for Ramadan, we actually meet and plan in advance. Over the summer, we meet, and we plan to think about how we’re going to set up protocol for the whole school year. It’s not just Ramadan, as we want students to be able to observe and pray throughout the school year. We started talking about that in August,” Paddock said. “We also have a separate space for praying, and this year we adjusted it so that students will be able to pray on time for the remainder of the school year.
According to Salat, the prayer space is useful so that they can connect with their God better.
“Having a place to pray is good — a space for Salah that is separate from people,” said Salat. “(It allows me) to be closer to my God.”
Ramadan is a massive deal for many and should be treated with the utmost respect. There is a large variety of traditions associated with Ramadan depending on the people. Because of this, one should not take all their information from one source, but if one is looking for a starting place, the Islamic Network Groups have a variety of information on the topic of Ramadan.
