Dubai: Four non-Muslim Gulf News staffers decided to join in the spirit of Ramadan by fasting this month and writing about it for a blog titled Tasting Ramadan. The reader reaction to their posts on www.gulfnews.com has been overwhelmingly supportive.
People responded with words of encouragement and support through online comments and social media posts. A few even got inspired to join the challenge and try to fast for a few days. Cris, a reader, commented on the website: “Your blog made me smile a few times. As I keep thinking about it, I want to start fasting, too.”
Maricris Bandalan decided to start fasting as well. She told Gulf News: “It [yesterday] is my first day, and it is difficult but I am trying to keep up with them [the bloggers]. I think they are helping a lot. If you try to follow what they’re doing, I think you can make it.”
Another online reader, Rajiv Nair, has been fasting for the past eight years after he saw most of his colleagues observe Ramadan. “Keep your faith high and this will be a blessed month,” he posted.
The four bloggers include our portal manager David Westley, senior associate editor Mick O’Reilly, tabloid! editor Natalie Long and features editor Malavika Kamaraju. They’re all attempting the Ramadan fast for the first time and are happy with the reader response.
O’Reilly said: “I’m really surprised that so many people have been taking an active interest in my little experiment. I honestly didn’t expect the level of reaction, and it surprises me just how much we seem to have connected with readers and how that relates to us. Ramadan Kareem.”
Long echoed the sentiment. She said: “I’m really glad that people are into it. Very surprise and touched. To be honest, fasting has not been too hard, but I guess the novelty is wearing off. What one of the commenters said got me thinking – Muslims are able to go through with the experience because they’ve got faith driving them. I guess that is the challenge, now, to see how to make this experience more meaningful.”
Some online Muslim readers offered advice to help them get through the day. When O’Reilly drunk his morning coffee without realising he was fasting, a reader, Yusouf, shared a Hadith [sayings] by the Prophet Mohammad [PBUH]: “It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet [PBUH] said, ‘Whoever forgets that he is fasting and eats or drinks, let him complete his fast, for the One Who fed him and gave him to drink was Allah.’”
Westley said that is really nice to read all the supportive comments. “I guess the danger was that we might trivialise the entire experience by simply embracing the one half of fasting – staying away from food and water. Because that’s what we’re doing. But for Muslims it is about spirituality, in fact, it is the most important part. I’m glad most people are appreciating it. Now for us that is the hardest part - how to deal with the other half.”
The blog will chart their journey as they navigate their work days and weekends without any food and drink from dawn to dusk. To discover and share in their experiences over the month, log on to www.gulfnews.com/guides/life/Ramadan.
— The writer is a trainee with the Readers Desk at Gulf News
