Last of Ramadan, 1430

It is now Saturday, 19 September in the Western calendar.

Today should be the 29^th and last day of Ramadan, since, according to my Chinese lunar calendar, the crescent moon should be clearly visible tonight at sunset, so tomorrow should be Eid al Fitr, the festival at the end of Ramadan. Of course, if there is a dust cloud obscuring the moon in Saudia, then the crescent won't be seen here, and tomorrow will be 30 Ramadan 1430.

As Ramadan runs down, Farook must pay his Zakat, the Islamic equivalent of the Christian tithe, only a bit less (2½% rather than 10%). Farook showed me his pot, which is huge, much too large to fit into any home cooker. On alternate nights, he either buys a goat and a 20 kg sack of rice, or a bunch of chickens and a 20 kg sack of rice, then takes them to a public oven for cooking and gives some to the Dubai religious authorities (called the Awqaf) to distribute, and distributes some himself to the meskins he knows. One of these meskins is Dubai@Random, so I've been given huge quantities of goat or chicken biriani and harees (whatever that is) every night for the last 10 days or so (and I've managed to put on several kilos as a result).

Last night, we went to a Ramadan tent. People sit around and talk from around 10 pm until 11:45 pm when they bring out six roast goats on beds of different items, plus accompaniments such as pancakes with date syrup, pasta, and beans, and everyone digs in for fifteen minutes, then goes outside the tent for tea, coffee, thanks to the host, and goodbye (in Arabic is masalama).

As we ate, I kept asking, 'What's this,' meaning, not the goat, of course but the different items on which the goats were sitting. 'Shhh,' I was told.

After, Farook explained that it is very rude to talk while eating.

'But I want to know what the dishes are called,' I tried to explain.

'Why? You must eat what is put before you. No need to know name.'

So (other than goat) I have almost no idea what I ate, except for the pasta, pancakes and beans (and they wouldn't tell me the Arabic names for the type of beans or for the pancakes or pasta).

So, after today, Eid meaning festival, for a few days, then back to what is considered normal for this part of the world.

18 Ramadan 1430: Farook's Zakat

There are only 11 days left in Ramadan. It's not clear to me that the Muslim tithe called zakat must be paid during Ramadan, but many Muslims try to pay a significant portion of it during this month.

For his zakat Farook donates iftars to the poor, and Dubai@Random qualifies, so Farook wanted to give me an iftar. I had just gotten home and turned on Ramadan Murder Mysteries, a regular feature on MBC4 every Ramadan, when my phone rang and Farook said he was desperate to see me, but he had no vehicle. So I had to walk across Karama to meet Farook in a shisha parlour near his flat.

When I arrived, Farook gave me a very late iftar or a very early sohour, consisting of hamees and biriani. Farook bought 20 kg of what he said was mutton, but which tasted more like goat, 20 kg of rice, and some wheat, then he took the lot to a public oven that cooked it all up into a rather spicy harees (goat and wheat cooked until it forms a paste) and goat biriani, which means goat and rice. Now he has to distribute the result to the poor, called meskins, who include Dubai@Random, so he was desperate to see me and give me some harees and biriani. Which, I have to admit, were quite tasty after walking across Karama.

Farook's biriani is quite spicy (at his insistence: I assume the public oven would omit the chili if the customer didn't want it), so we washed it down with diet soda and mint tea.

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In Christendom, it is customary to give gifts (generally cash) at Christmas to the workers who provide service all year, e.g., security guards for people living in flats with security guards, porters & etc. In the Islamic world, it is customary to give the poor workers who provide service a little cash for Eid, but this should be given several days before Eid so they will have the money to buy the things they need to have a proper Eid celebration. So, for those people living in flats with security guards, it's time to start thinking about envelopes for Eid, which should be in about 12 days.

Ramadan Kareem

Today is the second day of Ramadan, which started Friday at sunset. For those new to the region, 'Kareem' means, according to my dictionary, 'generous, bountiful, gracious, noble'. The other common greeting is 'Ramadan Mubarak.' 'Mubarak' means 'blessed'. A rough translation, then, of 'Ramadan Kareem' would be, 'Have a Bountiful Ramadan,' while 'Ramadan Mubarak' would translate as 'Have a Blessed Ramadan.'

It is said that Ramadan requires Muslims to fast during the day, but this is a simplification: fasting is from 'dawn' until a few minutes after sunset, and 'dawn' is not a precisely defined term. In the UAE, 'dawn' begins exactly 90 minutes before sunrise, and a cannon sounds to tell people to start fasting. The azan, or call to prayer, then comes exactly ten minutes later.

One or two minutes after sunset, the cannon and the azan sound together, calling people to prayer and telling them to stop fasting.

From the time the 'dawn' cannon sounds until the sunset cannon and azan, all Muslim men must fast, meaning nothing by mouth. Not just no food, but also no water and no smoking. The not eating isn't really that hard, but the lack of water (not to mention coffee and tea) is difficult.

Here in the UAE, I have met many Muslims who say, as does the local newspaper, that the fast must be ended as soon as one first hears the azan or the cannon, that it is dangerous to extend the fast any longer, so the advice is to keep some dates and a bottle of water handy, and to eat a few dates and drink a little water as the azan begins. Some Muslims, having eaten their dates and taken a few sips of water, proceed to the mosque for the sunset prayer, and this is what the newspaper recommends: break the fast with a few dates and water, but then wait before dining 'in moderation.'

However, I've seen many Muslims who go to sunset buffets and who continue eating for half an hour or so after the azan sounds. Typically, the sunset buffet will have nothing left half an hour after the azan sounds, so then it's time to waddle over to the mosque.

Breaking the fast is called iftar, whether it's just a few dates and a few sips of water, or an immense banquet. During the Bush, Jr. administration, to show that the US was not against Islam, but only against Islamic terrorists, Condoleeza Rice invited the Muslim diplomats in Washington to an iftar consisting of a few pieces of candy (she couldn't find any dates) and a small bottle of water. They returned the favour, in typical Arab fashion, by inviting her to a magnificent banquet the following Ramadan, far more lavish than the iftar buffets served in Dubai.

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I knew several Muslim men before coming to the UAE, but none ever excused himself from lunch saying, 'I'm sorry, but it's Ramadan.' Apparently, all used the dispensation that travellers are not required to fast until they return home, when they must make up the missed fast. So the first I ever heard about Ramadan was upon my arrival in the UAE. I was warned that it would be a novel experience. The warnings proved correct.

Beginning about an hour before Ramadan, everyone rushes to get home. Most people are already home by then, but those still out feel they must get home before the azan. My first few years in the UAE, during the hour before sunset, taxis drove more than 120 kph to ensure that their passengers, as well as the drivers, would be somewhere to enjoy iftar.

That first Ramadan in the UAE, I signed up for a lecture explaining what it was all about. I paid about £3 for a huge iftar and lecture, held in a tent. I arrived at the tent, and saw the other guests filling their plates, then sitting down but not eating, so I did the same. Finally, the azan sounded, and everyone took a few dates, some water, and then started on the soups, salads, and main dishes. Then a man got up on the podium, and I waited for the lecture:

'Thank you for coming to our presentation about Ramadan. Our speaker just informed me that Ramadan is about family, so he will be having iftar with his family and will not be able to join us.'

So we continued eating until all the food was gone, which took about 30 minutes, then we all waddled out and went home.

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Ms. Rice hadn't read much about Ramadan (nor had I before I came to the UAE, but I wasn't a Secretary of State), or she would have known that British travel writers who had visited the region sometimes called it the 'Feast of Ramadan,' rather than the fast of Ramadan.

I met a woman with both a Saudi and an American passport, so she knew about both Thanksgiving and Ramadan. Every day, for the month of Ramadan, Muslim housewives must prepare the feast to be eaten that night, not unlike American or Canadian Thanksgiving. The meat dishes for Ramadan are goat and chicken rather than turkey, and the vegetable side dishes are different from what the typical American family serves, but the meals are similar in size, complexity, and the effort expected of the housewives.

If the first big meal is at sunset, it is called iftar; if iftar only consists of a few dates and a few sips of water, I'm not sure what the first big meal is called. But it is indeed a large feast, enough to make up for the day's fast. The local newspaper here always says it should not be a heavy meal, but a light meal, since fasting means eating and drinking in moderation between sunset and 'dawn.' This is an admonition more honoured in the breach than the observance.

During Ramadan, there will be many iftar buffets in Dubai. The commercial ones will be lavish banquets. Once, these were sold at very low prices for Ramadan, but those days are past, and now prices of more than $100 are not uncommon. But there will also be free iftars provided for the poor by mosques and other charitable organisations, generally consisting of a few dates, a sizeable dish of rice and either mutton or chicken, a bottle of water, a cup of juice, and a piece of fruit.

Many restaurants will be open all night during Ramadan (when it's not Ramadan, they close at various times between 10 pm and midnight).

There will also be some tents that serve a free meal at midnight, but if this meal has a name, I don't know it.

Around two or two and a half hours before sunrise, most Muslims will have their last meal before fasting starts, called sohour.

And then the cannon will sound. People will put away the remains of sohour, cigarette smokers will stub out their cigarettes, and the waiters in the shisha parlours will come by and take away the hookahs.

Then Muslims will fast until the cannon sounds for iftar.

My first Ramadan in the UAE (Pt. 1)

I had never heard of Ramadan before coming to the UAE, which now strikes me as strange. Many of the authors I had read must have spent time in the Islamic world, and I would have thought they would have mentioned Ramadan. Of course, in the British Officers’ Club, the staff served tea at 1600 hours, regardless of where the Club was located, or the Islamic month, so the writers might not have noticed Ramadan, or might have felt it would not be of interest to their readers.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Ramadan, formerly spelled Ramazan, first appeared in English around 1500, in a translation of a French scholar’s description of Islam (he said Ramazan was like Lent). Ramadan continued to appear occasionally in travellers' memoirs, in a few novels, and in Byron’s long poem, Childe Harold, but I had never read any of these.

When I was at university, and after I started working, I met many Muslims, but there was nothing noticeably different about them. No Muslim ever said to me, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t come to lunch with you because it’s Ramadan.’ They all managed to fast without my noticing. All I knew of Islam at the time was the Hajj, and that one of my fellow students from Saudi Arabia had been studying logistics, since he was to be on the Hajj organizing committee after his graduation and return to Saudi Arabia.

As my first Ramadan in the UAE approached, my co-workers warned me that it would be a novel experience, but didn’t really explain, saying I would have to see for myself. They told me that the government would announce Ramadan, and I didn’t realize that it had to start on one of two days, only that it was approaching.

My workplace had many water dispensers scattered throughout the building, as well as vending machines, and a large cafeteria that was always crowded with breakfasters before work started, crowded during the lunch break, and had a smaller crowd of snackers and coffee drinkers the rest of the day.

On the first day of Ramadan, all those water dispensers and vending machines were gone, and the cafeteria was dark and empty.

Workers had taped dark paper over the windows of one small room, and Western employees were told that we could slip into that room for a sip of water, or even a sandwich if we brought it in ourselves, but we must neither eat nor drink nor smoke anything anywhere else.

I was surprised to see some of the Muslims on the staff entering the room, but wasn’t sure how to ask about this. Eventually, someone explained that Muslims who are not Emiratis are travellers, and might not be under a strict obligation to fast until they return home.

Our workday was shortened by two hours, but, on the first of Ramadan, I stayed to finish paperwork and check the news via the Internet, and left the building at my usual time, about half an hour before sunset. I was the last one to leave the building, which was by then dark and silent.

The previous day, the street had been busy at quitting time, with many taxis honking at me trying to find a fare. On the first day of Ramadan, the street was deserted. The place where I worked was set on the outskirts of town, so I started walking to where I hoped there would be more taxis, and, eventually, I heard the familiar ‘beep.’ The taxi then drove me home at 150 kph, a speed that didn’t seem terribly dangerous, since we were alone on the city streets, which were broad enough to handle the normally heavy traffic.

From home, I walked into town and arrived about an hour after sunset. Things seemed fairly normal, if a bit quieter than usual. I selected a restaurant I hadn’t tried before and had supper. When I had finished my supper, I went to the grocer’s where I picked up some essentials. Since my purchases weighed more than I cared to carry, I hailed a taxi to take me and my purchases home.

By this time, though, the city centre was completely filled with people. Some were shopping, some were having a bite to eat, and some were just driving around and honking. The taxi remained stuck in the traffic for an hour. The meter charges for both time and distance, and my usual $1 carfare home had risen to $4. We were still less than half way, so I got out and walked the rest of the way home.

For the remainder of that Ramadan, I continued to walk into town after work, and I also made smaller, more frequent purchases at the grocer’s, since I knew I’d be walking home.