Muzak Khalil started Monday at 4 a.m. with a morning prayer and a pastry.
He didn’t eat again until sundown.
Khalil, vice president of the Muslim Student Association, joins millions of Muslims across the world in observing the month-long fast of Ramadan, which began Oct. 26 and will end Dec. 6.
During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and celebrate a communal Iftar meal at the end of each day. Fasting does not include only food – it also includes sensual pleasures such as sex.
“For a month, you put yourself in an army training camp,” said Abed Mubarak, Imam of the Islamic Center of Baton Rouge. “You can pray and fake it, you can go to Mosque and fake it, you can appear holy, but fasting is only between you and God.”
Muslims cannot swallow a thing during the fast – not even water.
“If you do by accident, you have to spit it out immediately,” Abed said.
Fasting is one of the five pillars of the Muslim church. The Quran says, “Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may learn self-restraint.”
Mubarak said the self-restraint a person can learn from Ramadan is important, and the self-denial can teach compassion for those who live with hunger and thirst year-round.
“The season is a time of great giving,” he said. “It is optional to give throughout the whole season – and people usually give much. It is mandatory to give around $10 per person in a household at the end of Ramadan. You give that money directly to the poor.”
Mubarak is surrounded by food all day. He is the owner of Atcha’s Bakery on Nicholson Drive, but he said fasting is not difficult for him.
“When you submit yourself to God and submit yourself to pleasing him, you don’t even think about it,” he said.
When the Muslim community comes together in the evening to break fast at the Islamic Center of Baton Rouge, Atcha’s provides the food.
“We feed around 200 people every weekday and 250 on the weekends,” he said.
For Khalil, knowing he will eat a great meal in the evening helps him get through the day, he said.
“When I walk around the Union, I can smell the pizza and the fries. It does distract me a little bit,” said Khalil. “But I just think about the meal I’ll be eating at night.”
Mubarak keeps a calendar of times in his bakery of sunsets and sunrises for the month of Ramadan. He and his family usually rise before 5 a.m. and eat a few dates and some water.
“My kids are born in America – they eat cereal,” he said. “I drink my hot tea in the morning and that gets me through the day.”
But Khalil is from India and in that country many Muslims eat sweet foods like pastries, he said.
“The fast is much easier here than it was in India because it is so hot there,” he said. “When I was young and my parents would fast, it would be so hot all day and the summer days were so long. Fasting in the winter when the days are short is much easier.”
Because Ramadan rotates around the Muslim lunar calendar, it occurs 11 days earlier each year. Khalil said Ramadan will probably be in summer when he is middle-aged.
“Then it will be more difficult,” he said.
But through the sacrifice comes virtue, said Khalil.
“I become closer to my family because we eat together every night,” he said. “I become closer to my friends. It is encouraging to know others share your faith and commitment to faith.”
For Khalil, the significance of Ramadan is difficult to describe.
“There are many Muslims who aren’t even practicing,” he said. “They don’t go and pray five times a day, but they fast for a month for Ramadan.”