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Third-year psychology student Rida Hamideh and her son Gabriel break fast for Ramadan. Many stude

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More than 1,400 years after the tradition of Ramadan began, the month of fasting and prayer continues to give the Muslim community a chance to appreciate and meditate on their lives.

Ramadan began Monday and will continue for a month.

During the period, people of Muslim faith will fast from sunrise to sunset and continue to make six daily prayers.

For UCLA students observing the holy month, life can get complicated; changing sleep patterns and waking up for predawn meals are not the only concerns.

Ramadan activities can overlap with classes and in some cases, midterms or finals.

“Breaking fast during class is usually not a problem since eating in class is not an issue,” said Ehaab Zubi, a fifth-year psychobiology student and the editor of Al-Talib, the Muslim newsmagazine at UCLA.

For students who do not have schedule conflicts, the Muslim Student Association is providing food for everyone who is fasting throughout the month of Ramadan.

“We are supposed to eat and pray at designated times. ... I make a personal choice to alter my schedule,” said Mohammad Mertaban, a fifth-year psychobiology and French student and former president of the MSA.

Professors are often understanding of religious obligations of students’ fasting, and in the case of schedule conflict with breaking the fast, Mertaban has had professors send him notes from classes he was unable to attend.

Designated prayer times also changed the scheduling of MSA board meetings, said Mariam Jukaku, a third-year computer science student and the current president of the MSA.

“We held the meeting at 5:30 a.m. as opposed to at night because it overlapped with prayer time,” she said.

Jukaku also said her professors have been accommodating in the past. Two years ago, when Ramadan was during finals week, Jukaku was allowed to leave for a few minutes to break her fast.

Despite changes in daily routines, the strong tradition of fasting continues among Muslims everywhere.

“It’s not only a fast from foods and drinks, it’s a fast from doing bad things like indulgence and lust,” Mertaban said.

“Fasting gets people to gain control over themselves and abstain from worldly desires,” he said.

The goal of fasting is to recognize weakness within a person, and because the lack of food and drink makes one physically weak, the flaws in their actions become apparent, Mertaban said.

Throughout the month, many people of Muslim faith make an extra effort to do good deeds because they are more aware of hunger and other thoughts that slip their minds every day.

Many Muslims believe Ramadan is a month of blessing, and rewards for good deeds are much greater during this month.

Though Islam doctrine requires all people of Muslim faith to observe Ramadan, reasons such s sickness could prevent one from fasting. In those cases, a person who could not fast can feed a hungry person three meals as a way to make up for the days they failed to fast.

Jukaku compared fasting in Ramadan to the Lent period in the Catholic faith.

“Its about giving up something you do every day in order to remember God and be thankful for things that you do have,” she added.

Many people also donate large amounts of money to charities during this holy month.

Interested non-Muslims will have a chance to experience Ramadan firsthand on Nov. 6 at an event called the Ramadan Fast-a-thon, put on by the MSA.

Participating businesses will be sponsoring the students and will donate at least $1 for each person pledging to fast that day.

The money raised from those businesses will go toward a hot meals program for the “Health Fair for the Homeless,” which will take place Nov 16.

The Ramadan Fast-a-thon is a nationwide event designed to build a symbolic bridge between Muslim and non-Muslim students.

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