This is me making sushi ...
– Bam!
– ... for 20 people.
Because I'm co-hosting a big iftar dinner.
That's the meal where Muslims break their fast at the end of the day
during Ramadan.
And this Ramadan, for the first time in my life,
I decided to fast.
My name is Yara and I work at AJ+.
Around the office, I noticed a lot of my coworkers
getting ready for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan,
which, yes, on the outside means ...
no eating,
no drinking,
no smoking,
and no sex
from dawn to dusk.
(And try to avoid swearing and bad behavior throughout the month).
Fasting is not prescribed for anyone who's too young, too old,
sick, traveling, pregnant, breast-feeding,
or on their period.
Ask your imam if fasting is right for you.
Anyway ...
This has led some to think of Ramadan
as a sad, joyless month of quiet suffering.
– So have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah
and a solemn, dignified Ramadan.
– People ask, like, “Oh my God, you're fasting?"
– “Oh, you have to not eat for a whole day? That's terrible!”
– They think it's almost like a punishment.
– But as someone who comes from a Muslim background,
I know that's not the case.
I have tons of friends and relatives who fast
and who happily look forward to Ramadan every year.
– For me it's joyous.
– It's hella fun.
– It's a time where everyone gets together.
– I get to see people that I haven't seen in so long.
– It's my favorite time of year.
– That's how I know there's this whole other side to it.
It's a holiday that's not only spiritual ...
It's celebratory, it's fun and it's all about community.
– Ramadan Mubarak. – Thank you.
– So this year, I figured I'd give fasting a shot for the first time ever
to explore that side of Ramadan.
OK, so before I start fasting for Ramadan,
there's one very important thing I need to do:
That's talking to my Muslim coworkers.
– Lots of water. Hydrate. Hydrate at night.
– It's about building your willpower.
– I think you will persevere
and come to really appreciate it.
– Ramadan is like the most social event of the year.
– Oh yes. Ramadan in America in 2018 is a big deal.
And there's a lot going on ... and a lot of memes.
Before I attended any of these events,
I had to talk to a Ramadan professional.
I asked a lot of people for advice ...
like this Uber driver.
– Avoid eating salty stuff.
Help poor people. Feed hungry people.
And an Imam.
– Ramadan is the month during which the Quran has been revealed.
It's a month of forgiveness, so we seek the forgiveness of our Lord
through our fasting,
through prayers at night,
through charity.
– And now, with all these tips, I was ready to get started.
The first thing I did was go shopping to prepare for a super important meal:
That's the other meal you eat during Ramadan,
besides the iftar dinner.
Think of it as breakfast. But at like 4 am.
It's the very, very, very last time you can eat or drink
before the sun goes up.
What tips do you have for what I should eat for suhoor?
– You're going to wake up, you're going to be exhausted,
you're gonna eat a banana and go back to sleep.
Because that's what happened with me.
– But I was a bit anxious.
So I spent the night at my friend's house, so he could show me the ropes
– Why are you filming me?
I feel very exposed.
– That's Tabish.
Dude's been fasting for like 15 years.
Before I went to bed,
I drank responsibly ...
and then slowly drifted into sleep.
Good morning.
Agh, now we have to make this breakfast.
[yawn]
Mmm ...
This is an incredible breakfast.
And then, we sat ... and ate until dawn.
Yeah, I can't talk to you. I have to eat.
And I downed another two glasses of water.
Yes
So now, I have to go back to bed.
And so, my first day of fasting began in earnest.
I definitely felt pangs of hunger.
And I got tired.
But it ebbed and flowed. And I sort of just got used to it,
especially after I immersed myself in work.
I'm not gonna lie: like a lot of other people,
I did start counting down the hours until I could break my fast ...
3 hours left.
I got to do it the way that make my grandma proud.
But it was nice knowing that I was counting down with a tiny community of fasters in the office
and an even bigger community of 3.5 million Muslims in the U.S.,
and a gigantic community of about 1.8 billion Muslims around the world.
Even among Muslims in the U.S., fasting is super popular.
Nearly twice as many American Muslims fast
compared to those who pray 5 times a day
Anyway, for me, fasting just got easier.
It seemed like my body was adjusting.
My metabolism slowed down, and I just didn't need as much food as I thought I did.
And despite being surrounded by food all day,
I felt a greater sense of self-control.
It felt empowering.
What I quickly learned is that Ramadan is just as much about eating as it is about fasting.
Every night, you eat lots and lots of food
with lots and lots of people close to your heart.
After not eating for some 16-plus hours,
I sat down with friends, family, and people from the local Muslim community,
to share an enormous meal, and a conversation.
I never had a single dinner alone, by myself,
during the week I spent documenting this.
And I made new friends in the process.
And, for my first Ramadan, I even participated in the great American Muslim tradition ...
of going to IHOP
for suhoor
at 2:30 in the morning.
– Raise your hand if you need utensils.
– Oh yes.
But most days, my suhoor was something like this:
– I accidentally set my alarm for 3:30 pm,
which means I missed suhoor.
I learned that one of the things I personally love most about Ramadan
is how it brings people together – people who might not otherwise see each other.
It's just really, really wholesome.
That was super clear to me when I went to a massive iftar in Fremont, California.
There's something undeniably festive about the Ramadan spirit.
And I noticed it not at just this iftar, but at all the other ones I went to as well.
It's like being here amongst all these people makes me feel and warm and fuzzy inside.
Here's the thing, I don't want to make Ramadan out to be just one big party, night after night.
It's celebratory – and something people look forward to.
But there's also this focus on training yourself to become a better person.
That's why I headed to the local Islamic Center in Oakland.
– Fasting is recommended to know how somebody who is hungry feels.
– That's Azita. She helps run things there.
She's also just an all-around awesome human being.
– I think Ramadan should also influence your actions.
– So we packed food into boxes,
Put on these rad stickers.
And passed them out to homeless people nearby.
It's honestly something I've never done before,
just roll down the window and ask a homeless person if they wanted dinner.
These are people whose struggles I couldn't even begin to imagine.
I chose to fast, they did not.
But in that moment, as I handed them a bottle of water or a to-go box of food,
I felt a sense of shared humanity.
You know, I've always been sort of hesitant about donating online,
but I don't know, that experience pushed me to be more charitable.
And I guess that's the idea of Ramadan, if you do something regularly for 30 days,
chances are it will become a habit, even after Ramadan is over.
I've never been the most spiritual or the most practicing Muslim,
but Ramadan kind of inspired me to look inward.
I went to mosques. I listened to the Quran.
I spent some time meditating on my bed,
but, I don't know I just didn't feel comfortable recording myself
I kind of felt like I needed a spiritual advisor.
So I hit up Imam Suhaib Webb.
He converted to Islam when he was in college. Which means,
just like me, he fasted for the first time in his 20s.
– Every year I've fasted there's been kind of maybe a different personal purpose, right?
So this year, like I'm trying to move to zero-waste lifestyle,
where there's no plastics in my life and it's really, really hard
But then each of us, like yourself, there's this personal construction.
So, I would ask you, what does it mean to you?
If I could come up with one word to define my experience this Ramadan, it would be:
– Community.
– Ramadan is a time that brings people together, no matter what their background.
– Pakistani.
– Algerian.
- Palestinian.
– Iranian.
– Pakistani.
– Egyptian.
– People who might not otherwise see each other,
who may be thousands of miles away from family,
who may have differing views and differing beliefs,
but we all came together during Ramadan.
We all fasted. We all bonded over our shared connection
to this cool club of 1.8 billion people.
And that's the main reason I wanted to make this video.
I wanted to show you that Ramadan to them, and to me,
isn't just solemn and dignified and full of starvation.
It's a month of celebration.
You celebrate your faith, your friends, your family and your blessings.
You celebrate the act of helping others.
And you get to take part in the most simple yet powerful celebration of all ...
getting together with people you love to break bread and make conversation.
And that's why I'm off to another iftar.