Chicago-area Muslim students embrace challenges of fasting for Ramadan during school and sports
Every morning during Ramadan, high school soccer player Zara Hasan wakes up around 4:30 a.m. for a quick bowl of oatmeal and quite a few glugs of water for suhoor.
The predawn meal marks the beginning of the day’s fast when Muslims observing the Islamic holy month abstain from eating or drinking from dawn until sunset.
For Hasan, captain of the junior varsity girls’ soccer team at Naperville North High School, the breakfast gets her through the day and into after-school practice.
“I don’t really think about fasting when I’m playing that much,” she said. “But when there’s a water break or something, I usually just rinse my mouth with water and spit it out just to freshen up a bit.”
Since the soccer season started while Ramadan was already underway, Hasan deliberately didn’t tell her teammates she was fasting.
“I just didn’t want them to think I’m playing differently because I’m fasting,” she said, crediting her competitive nature coupled with the spiritual effects of Ramadan.
“I actually feel like sometimes I’m more focused when I’m fasting and the adrenaline kicks in,” she said. “I don’t know, maybe because I’m not thinking about eating or anything else.”
Hasan said she was inspired by Adama Sanogo, one of four Muslim players on the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team. Sanogo led the university to a national championship in March, and led Hasan to uphold her religious obligations while playing soccer.
“He would break his fast on the sidelines of the games,” Hasan said. “He was fasting throughout the entire series — it was amazing.”
According to Tariq El-Amin, imam at Masjid al-Taqwa on Chicago’s South Side, this says a lot about Muslim student athletes.
“I really think young people are finding their agency,” he said. “It is something to be dependent on your parents for food, clothing and shelter. But fasting is sort of a form of independence. It is a declaration. I think they’re engaging in it and there’s a sense of accomplishment that comes along with fasting.”
El-Amin said that during Ramadan, observers tend to realize how much they eat out of habit or boredom rather than actual hunger.
“Fasting is an opportunity to examine the appetite that we have been conditioned to respond to,” he said. “And some habits that we engage in and respond to really have no value for us.”
Hasan, who generally indulges in several snacks throughout the day, said she doesn’t notice the lack of chips and granola bars this time of year.
“I feel like I’m less hungry after Ramadan,” she said. “I know that feeling now of not eating during the day and it makes you understand what other people (who don’t have much to eat) go through.”
Because of the large Muslim population at Naperville North, teachers and classmates are usually aware of students fasting during Ramadan and it isn’t something Hasan has to call out.
But in Marwan Aly’s case, as the only Muslim student at Plano High School as far as he knows, it’s much more of a conversation.
“There’s always people trying to learn and understand what Ramadan is and why we fast because it’s something new to them,” Aly said.
Some of his teachers keep track of how many days of fasting are left, or how many hours are left in the day until Aly can break his fast, he said.
The challenges of going without food or water vary from day to day, said Aly, who wakes up around 4:30 a.m. to make himself a noticeably light suhoor of dates soaked in milk, often with nuts and dried fruit. The Egyptian breakfast is called tamr bel laban, but dates and milk are a common choice for Muslims either at the beginning or end of the fast.
“Normally, when I eat something heavy, I get hungrier during the day,” he said, adding that he also drinks five glasses of water before dawn.
He then waits for the adhan, or the call to prayer that plays on an app on his phone, before offering fajr (the first of five daily prayers), and tries to get some more sleep before school. Usually, it’s just another hour of snoozing before he heads into the shower to get ready, Aly said.
While some days he feels lightheaded or a little sick during lunch period, “I get through it,” he said.
Aly, a junior, is on the Plano High School wrestling team, for which the physically taxing season just ended. He let out an “Alhamdulillah,” thanking God that he didn’t have to compete while fasting.
He does, however, participate fully in gym class even though his teachers offered him an alternative to running.
“It just makes me feel stronger about myself,” he said. “There will be other students tired after a couple of laps, but I manage to push through, even though I’m fasting.”
Since Plano High School doesn’t have its own Muslim Student Association, Aly tries to attend events hosted by the nearby Oswego High School club, like a recent “fast-a-thon” put together by several students, including freshman Abdullah Abouhaiba.
Abouhaiba said as part of the event, both Muslim and non-Muslim students were invited to the evening iftar — the meal to break one’s fast. For students who are unfamiliar with fasting, he said he compares it to intermittent fasting, but will clarify that Muslims fast for more than 14 hours consecutively.
Besides the challenges of participating in athletics and gym class, students can face other hardships during Ramadan. They can find themselves distracted during class, tired from late-night taraweeh prayers that are held every night throughout the month, or worn out from the interrupted sleep that comes with waking before dawn.
“Sometimes it gets hard because our sleeping schedule gets screwed up,” said Abouhaiba, who often stays up until suhoor time to not miss it. “Sometimes I’ll sleep through my alarm or wake up too late to have anything. I just don’t eat suhoor that day but I’ll still fast.”
On April 12, students at Oak Forest High School held an event similar to Oswego High School’s with the help of diversity club faculty sponsor Gary Andruch. The iftar dinner was the first of its kind for the school, but certainly not the last.
Andruch, a world history teacher, along with teacher Ruba Shaikh, has been instrumental in helping Muslim students showcase Ramadan, similar to how bulletin boards and school programming reflect other holidays.
Right outside his classroom is an informational display about Ramadan, and an inflatable cloud-shaped balloon in the library that reads “Ramadan Mubarak,” meaning congratulations on the holy month. There’s also a banner in the front foyer, he said.
“It makes everyone feel like a part of the school culture — so it’s not just one group being highlighted, it’s all the different groups,” Andruch said. “Each year it’s grown to more posters and more signs.”
Yasmin Maali, a senior in Andruch’s class and a member of the diversity club, said it’s been a welcome shift to see teachers more accommodating of students who are fasting.
Recently, the diversity club raised money for a student in need, and the classes that raised the most funds got a doughnut or pizza party.
“Today was one of the days I had to bring in doughnuts, so I also bought in a lot of packaged goods; that way students that were practicing Ramadan and couldn’t eat at school could take it home for later,” said Andruch, a 1997 Oak Forest High School alum. One class decided to postpone its doughnut party until Ramadan ends, Andruch said.
He noted that 22 years ago, when he started teaching, Ramadan was not well-understood among faculty and staff.
Aly said that even at Plano, with its limited interaction with Muslim students, people are curious about the details that make up Ramadan and the nuances of fasting.
“A lot of people also try to find loopholes to figure out a way to make it work,” he said with a laugh. “Somebody asked me if I could drink water or start eating if there’s an eclipse, or like, ‘What if it’s a cloudy day and you can’t see the sun?’”
Despite the lack of loopholes, Aly said most students are left bewildered when he inevitably has to explain, “No, not even water.”
