Not eating certainly builds character; if it is by choice, of course. Well over a billion Muslims will observe the fast of Ramadan this August. The faithful refrain from smoking, eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. Imagine – no coffee.
Ramadan is the 9th month according to the Muslim calendar. In the Southern Hemisphere this year it’s an easier time thanks to our short days in August (around 10 hours in Cape Town; 15 hours currently in the United Kingdom).
Ramadan commemorates the month in which the holy Qu’ran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is a period of greater introspection, of doing good deeds, of contemplating the word of Allah. The mosques have special congregational prayers and the entire Qu’ran will be recited within the month.
Fasting exists in many religions, not only the Abrahamic, but also in Hinduism and Buddhism. It can positively focus the mind and build solidarity. (Purges and fasts have also become popular among alternative health practitioners.) But in Islam it is one of the pillars of the faith, and a time to turn away from worldly ways.
In some parts of the world, however, Ramadan is becoming commercialized (as Christmas has in the West). The Middle East television channels run special soap operas during which period many companies spend half their annual advertising budgets. A few years ago in Lebanon there was a backlash against the extravagant night feasts in tents that included belly-dancing.
Suhoor is the morning meal, before sunrise and prayer. The Cape Malay word for this was “sowah”, but Arabic terms have in recent times become dominant.
The breaking of the fast after sunset is Iftar (the Malays call it ‘buka puasa’). It’s such a special time among the Cape Muslim community that this year I joined my friend Faizel and his family in Belgravia to explore their tradition.
The kitchen has been busy. The daughters complain genially that they work all day and still have to do the cooking. (I’d find it extremely hard to prepare food after fasting all day without tasting it, not to mention all those enticing smells, but then I haven’t had the training.) More and more people buy food ready prepared, and there is a growing trend to go out at night to halaal restaurants (Kaprino’s in Green Point is running a Ramadan buffet special).
It is 5:45pm and seven-year-old Aaliyah is rearing to go. Children start with half-day fasts until they reach puberty. She has a pink napkin wrapped plate of granny’s bollas (spherical donuts with coconut). The tradition is to go door to door swopping treats with your neighbours. We head off from Martin Luther Street towards Salaam Street.
Aunty Jessie, who has a reputation for her chicken curry, has made flapjacks; there are pies in the oven, and on the table samosas, dhaltjies (deep fried chili bites made from pea flour with chopped spinach, lettuce, grated onion or potato) and bhajias (chili bites but with bigger leaves).
On 8th Avenue, Aunty Wieyah has samosas and pancakes (without coconut, because, she jokes, her husband says coconut, not smoking, makes him cough).
It is nearly sunset. Faizel tells me that years back everyone used to wait outside on the pavement to listen for the call to prayer as the mosque was rather far away. Today, we wait, tuned to Radio 786 (the number is a numerological abbreviation for the phrase “in the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate”).
We break the fast with a single date, in accordance with the tradition of the Prophet. After prayer, the table is set with a fine spread.
Rukeya serves her thick spinach and beef soup, and offers us a glass of cold pink falooda, made with milk, elachi (cardamom) and rose syrup and greenish basil seeds (which Faizel calls ‘frog eyes’).
Then there are bowls of Amina’s delicious, warm milky boeber (made with vermicelli pasta, cinnamon sticks, sago, sugar, to which sultanas and almond flakes are often added).
Aquilah has made sweetcorn fritters; Nadia has attended to the Jasmine rice (best soaked in cold water for an hour before cooking); Faizel has prepared a scrumptious butter chicken – cubed fillets sautéed in butter, with ground coriander, chilies, cumin, tomato paste, cream, and a sprinkling of fresh chopped coriander.
I understand why some people even put on weight over Ramadan. But Faizel’s father, Ebrahim reminds us, “You never know what is on your neighbour’s table, if anything.”
Once everyone has finished eating, in Muslim tradition, the food no longer belongs to the hosts. At weddings and functions guests load and take what is left, colloquially called a “barakat”. I know I’ll enjoy mine tomorrow.
This article first appeared in the Mail & Guardian, 12 August 2011.