Ramadan effects on Muslim Students
Another year, another Ramadan for the Muslim Students at Piscataway High School. Starting on February 17 and lasting until March 19, Ramadan will be affecting the local Muslim students of Piscataway High with religious responsibilities they must tend to, from their fasting to their prayers. Balancing schoolwork and exams and other extracurriculars will make the students academic life challenging especially since Ramadan lasts a month. For many Muslim students, the holiday becomes a challenge of balance, endurance, and self growth and discipline.
What is Ramadan?
Ramadan, is a traditional holiday that all Muslims must participate in. It’s mostly the tradition of fasting, the action where Muslims do not eat or drink at all for the entire day until sunset, specifically their Maghrib prayer which is 1 out of the 5 daily prayers Muslims must pray. But it’s not just fasting, but it’s also where many Muslims get to improve themselves and seek forgiveness for their sins. Ramadan starts on February 18th or 19th depending if a crescent moon is in the sky after sunset and lasts until March 19th or 20th which will be the holiday Eid al Fatir where Muslims can regularly drink and fast again
How will students work in school with Ramadan?
When additional religious responsibilities are added to the daily lives of Muslim students, their school lives can become very challenging. In the morning, Muslim students are exhausted since they have to wake up early before the pre-dawn Fajr Prayers. To eat or drink before Fajr starts, they get very tired but get used to it over time. They also choose what food they should eat to help keep them active for the rest of the day, since they have very little time since Fajr is close to when school starts by 2 hours.
The vice president of MSA, Ahmed Hamed, said “It has been long and tiring, but all of it is worth it in the end for God.” Students also have a better sense of balance between Ramadan and doing school work since most Muslim students are religious, but most Muslim students are used to it since they have been dealing with it for a long time in their school years. Some students say this year was easy because they figured out their whole schedule for it before the holiday started.
How has the school reacted?
Of course the school recognizes this holiday and the local MSA group has worked with the school to help Muslim students adjust to their challenging days. Now during lunch time, Muslim students have the option to go to “safe rooms”, free classrooms open during lunch periods so that Muslim students don’t have to go to lunch and not eat.
One of the teachers of the saferooms and the club advisor of MSA, Mrs Elmahalawy, said about the safe rooms “It’s fun, you get to talk to everybody and get to catch up with everyone” and that the teachers at PHS “has never been opposed to helping out” while getting the empty classrooms for saferooms. She also said “Being around other Muslims during the day makes you stronger, gives you a boost of confidence” showing that the saferooms are a great way to socialize with other Muslims and get to know one another and catch up.
Another additional factor is that Muslim cadets in the local AFJROTC unit have the opportunity to not volunteer in the mandatory PT days since they have no water to drink but rather advised to perform PT at their own time since PT days are known for being very rigorous since it is related to official Air Force physical training exercises. As for extracurriculars, some Muslim students still stay after school despite the lack of food and water while others reasonably leave to go home and rest to eventually break their fast.
Conclusion
While Ramadan can be challenging and cause students to be fatigued from sleep and a lack of a full meal for the entire day, it is not there for no reason. Ramadan was formed so that followers of Islam can sacrifice things like food and water for prayers and to be forgiven for your previous sins and to form discipline and a spiritual character. PHS understands this and the Muslim students of the school and of MSA adapt and move on and forward despite challenging factors.
