Missing Iftar

I asked an English Teacher if he’d like to join me for iftar. By ‘English Teacher,’ I mean that a) he’s from England; and b) he teaches English.

He said he’d been asked to iftar by a Muslim last year.

‘He got very upset when I was late. I don’t understand it. He wasn’t at at all reasonable. Nothing here ever takes place on time, and he was so angry because I was 15 minutes late for iftar.’

‘Well, for Muslims, Islam says that they must break their fast as soon as the sun sets. It’s an important part of their religion that fasting start at the proper time and end at the proper time,’ I tried to explain.

‘What possible difference could 15 minutes make?’ he asked. ‘He was so unreasonable about it.’

This year, he was marking papers, and we didn’t make it to iftar until half an hour after sunset.

I’m not sure about the €30 iftars (for that price, I hear, the iftar buffet lasts for three hours), but we went to a €6 iftar, where everyone arrives about half an hour before sunset and fills his plate (or plates), then waits patiently for sunset to dig in.

By the time we arrived, all the popular items were gone. About 20 minutes after sunset, they start clearing the salads (called mezze), so we only found a few salads by the time we arrived; about 40 minutes after sunset, they start clearing the main course trays; finally, about 50 minutes after sunset, they clear the dessert trays, the iftar buffet is over, and they serve from their normal, non-Ramadan menu.

The English teacher said, ‘Well, this iftar buffet didn’t have much of a selection.’

I didn’t bother replying, ‘Well, it did for those who arrived on time.’

The next day, I was invited to iftar by a Muslim, and expected a reasonable meal.

However, the UAE labour laws require a reduction in hours worked for Ramadan, which means that the public transportation service cancels many of the busses and taxis.

I went out at 3:00 p.m. to get a ride to iftar. The sun set, and I still hadn’t seen a bus or a legal taxi (though I did see some illegal taxis, but was afraid to try one), so I never made it to iftar. I tried to call my host to apologize, but he didn’t answer his phone, either because a) he is angry that I failed to make his iftar, or b) because iftar is much too important to interrupt by answering the phone. I suppose I’ll find out why he refused to answer his phone in a day or two.