October 17, 2004

• How about "hey, so what should I say to you as a friendly, related greeting while you're fasting?" Sounds like as good a conversation starter as any.
• Yeah, that's what I am planning to do tomorrow. Today, when I asked one of the guys how his day was, he told me he was in the middle of fasting. I had forgot about Ramadan so it kinda took me by suprise, plus my son was currently squirming and whining in his sling, and there was a loud (distracting) opera performance going on in the back of the cafe (very special place.) So I just asked him if he was hungry which prompted him to assume a look of pride and reply that he was "getting use to it." My question about a proper Ramadan salutation occurred to me after I left, so I figured I would give the MoFi folks a shot. It would be nice if tomorrow I could say "hey Rabba, {fill in blank}". If not, I'll just say "Hey Rabba, what does one say for Ramadan?"
• I second that. Why don't you ask them, Zan, then come back here and enlighten us? I've never known quite what to do about Ramadan..how aboout "Hey, Rabba, the folks at monkeyfilter were wondering what to say to a muslim at Ramadan...."
• And, doesn't the fast end in the evening? From what I've read, Muslims prepare really wonderful stuff for breaking the daily fast. You might ask them about that - they might even offer you some. Here's a bit of Wikipedia, information which could also give you some conversation starters. Also, a nice piece by one of the Iraqi bloggers,Riverbend, which talks about the spirit of Ramadan
• "So, you gonna eat that?"
• The last guy I knew who was serious about it explained that it was a real pain. Not drinking all day is the really difficult but. We tried not to give him a hard time by eating in front of him. Path, it's sun-up until sundown. In theory you can eat before dawn, and I believe many people do. Certainly, as my friend observed (we were in the UK) it's worse in more northerly latitudes, the day being rather longer than in the Prophet's native clime. Jews wish each other well over the fast at Yom Kippur etc - I imagine Muslims do likewise. Personally I can't imagine anything worse than working in a cafe for non-believers when you are fasting. Your friends must have nerves of steel.
• Ramadan kareem? Don't mention the bad breath...
• 'Bismillah' is always good ('thanks be to god'), but save your real joy for Eid, at the end of Ramadan. (I dated an Afghan girl, many years ago... she was way cool)
• Can you do the fandango?
• 'Bismillah' is always good Um, not sure about that. It means 'in the name of God' (not 'thanks be to god') and a pious Muslim is supposed to start all projects, literary works, &c with it, but I don't think it's used as a salutation, and I suspect it would sound odd coming from a non-Muslim anyway. The basic greeting on a religious holiday is "id mubaarak" (EED muBAHrak) 'blessed feast,' which is what you'd say on Id al-Fitr (AHD definition), the feast that ends Ramadan; for a more specific greeting, you use the name of the holiday in place of "id," so during Ramadan you'd say "RamaDaan mubaarak" (ramaDAWN muBAHrak) 'blessed Ramadan.' Try it out!
• it's worse in more northerly latitudes, the day being rather longer than in the Prophet's native clime. Actually I'd surely trade an hour or two longer than to hvae to be in the desert with no water all day :)
• Ramadan's difficulty differs by what time of the year it falls during. A couple years back, it was during the middle of the summer, and it was really hard on the people I know who were fasting. But now in mid-October, the days are a lot shorter. So more than it being harder in the North, it's more of a lunar calendar crapshoot..
• "Lunch is on me today" or some such always got a smile out of my pal Rizvi
• asalasalam [observes in respect]
• "...it's worse in the northerly climes, the day being rather longer than in the Prophet's native clime." Actually in the (Northern hemisphere) fall the day is shorter the farther one goes North. An observant muslim living in Oslo, for instance, would only have to fast 9 hours compared to the 11 1/2 for one in Riyadh. Unless of course they have to go by the sunrise and sunset times at Mecca...
• Ramadan Mmubaarak is good, but just Happy Holiday or Joyous Ramadan is fine, too. You can find Ramadan ecards here or google for tons of other sites. Just for a Westerner to acknowledge the holiday is a source of pleasure. Several years ago when we were in Turkey Ramadan was in the hottest part of the summer, and the temps were 103 degrees. The military on the base was on 15 minute shade breaks every hour and orders to drink a minimum of 8 oz water per hour. You sweat like a piggy in that humidity. The Islamic contract employees didn't get the rest perk, naturally, and wouldn't drink because of breaking the fast. They worked eight and ten hour days, and then would visit all the friends and relatives and feast till midnight. Amazing people.
• For reference, the response I was taught to use for the "salam wa alaykum" (sp?) was "alaykum e-salaam, wa rahmat ullahi, wa barakaatu". That and "marhaba ismi <foo>" got me through my brief week-long stay in Kuwait. Now I'm getting my monthly pang of guilt that I never got around to learning Arabic properly. Anyone know any good sites for this?
• Quite right, fractalid. Blame it on my waking up at 4:30 this morning.
• Yep BlueHorse - a turkish friend would fast all day (not too difficult since they get up late), then go to work in the afternoon before partying until near dawn. Sleeping is easier in the cool(er) pre-dawn apparently. But they were not very devout Muslim family in (reasonably) moderate Muslim country.
• How 'bout saying "So what you think of the situation in the Sudan then?" - just kidding.