Page 113 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

Ramadan is the eighth holy month of the Hijri year for all Muslims around the world. In 2019, Ramadan took place in the month of
May, where summer was still in its beginning. In the month of Ramadan, Muslims cannot do sev- eral things, most importantly eating and drink- ing since the Azan, which is the call of pray for Muslims, of Al Fajer, which begins
third difference – which is positive – is the low temperature here. The temperature in the Mid- dle East during the day in Ramadan is usually about 35 to 45 degrees, but it was very suitable here for fasting at about 23 degrees. There is no doubt that the last difference is the absence of the families, where they used to eat with the whole family back home.
at 0230hrs London time, until the Azan of Al Maghrib, which begins at 2100hrs at sunset; about 18 to 19 hours of fasting per day.
For many of the Muslim Officer Cadets in the Academy, this was their first Ramadan outside of their country, and there are undoubt- edly many differences they faced during their fasting in the UK, especially at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
For many of the Muslim Officer Cadets in the Academy, this was their first Ramadan outside of their countr y...
They were fortunate that the Acad- emy programme was available to all Muslims for the entire term, which made it easier for them to know when to fast and when they could not fast if there was hard work on the programme; this option is decided by the OCdt himself. On some days fasting is easy because the lectures are inside the Academy campus and do not require any physical effort. But
The first difference is the length of the fasting period, for example; the fasting period in the Middle East often does not exceed 14 hours per day, while 19 hours here is very long. The sec- ond difference is that the eating period is short because the time they can start eating is very close to the time of sleeping, so they had to eat and then take an extra meal to eat before the start of the other fasting day, which means that they had to wake up before the start of fast- ing which affects the quality of their sleep. The
some days there are sports lessons demand- ing a hard physical effort where fasting affects performance, so some of the OCdts prefer not to fast during those days to avoid affecting the whole Platoon, and of course the interest of the group is more important than the interest of one individual in the Platoon. They had a few exer- cises outside the Academy during the month of Ramadan and the Muslim OCdts had the option of not fasting, at the same time they were given enough time to cook and eat if they were fasting in that exercise. The RMAS HQ was professional and experienced dealing with Ramadan and
Ramadan 2019 at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Captain Sulaiman Ambusaidi, Omani Exchange Officer
Eid Lunch at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 5th June 2019
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