Fasting leads to feasting during Ramadan 

Holiday’s a time of fellowship and food for Metro Detroit Muslims

But before you go feeling sorry for your Muslim friends and co-workers who abstain from food while you enjoy all those holiday treats that are everywhere this time of year, please understand that they are not suffering. On the contrary, it’s an exciting and spiritual time for Muslims not only across Metro Detroit but the world.

“Fasting is a form of worship and a time of empowerment,” explains Zana Macki, who works for Oakwood Health Care System in Dearborn and celebrates the season of Ramadan. “We are not fasting with the intention to deprive ourselves but to feed our spirit. The idea of the fasting is to remind us how fortunate we are. When we feel hunger pains, we empathize with those less-fortunate who are hungry all the time.

    “People are always saying to me, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t eat in front of you,’ ” Macki says, “but really, fasting gives you such a good feeling because you are challenging yourself.”

Contrary to what many non-Muslims believe, food plays a major role in celebrating Ramadan.

    Even though from dawn to sunset, Muslims abstain from food, drink and all sensual pleasures, that doesn’t mean food is entirely out of the picture.

    “Women spend all day planning and preparing what they will serve once the sun goes down,” explains Macki. “They visit the markets to get what they need for that evening’s meal, then they spend the rest of the day preparing meals to enjoy as soon as the sun sets.”

And, because it’s a holiday, meals often are shared with extended family and friends as well, so it really is a huge undertaking.

    Included with the fasting is the tradition of eating certain foods once the fast is broken. At Joe & Ed’s Market, at 5635 Schaefer in Dearborn, co-owner Adel Saad has crates and crates of dates stacked on the counter and has stocked up on sheets of apricot paste.

    “We eat the dates when we break the fast at night because it helps the digestive system, and provides fiber,” says Saad. “Eating dates goes back to the prophet Mohammed, who always broke his fast by first eating dates. For our drink we make a syrup out of the apricot paste and mix with water.”

The apricot paste, or ameerdine, looks like a dried fruit leather, and it’s combined with boiling water to make a thick syrup. Observant Muslims usually start and finish their fast with this drink because it helps the body to retain water.

    Muslims partake of two main meals each day during Ramadan. The souhoor begins each day before dawn and the aftar breaks the fast after sunset

“After we break the fast with the dates and water or the apricot drink, then we’ll have a traditional soup like lentil and a salad like fattoush,” says Macki. “But the main meal can be anything goes. There are no restrictions, olives, cheeses, meats, everything is good. Every family has traditional dishes they enjoy. In my family lamb is very big.”

    Sweets are also a huge part of Ramadan, and the New Yasmeen Bakery on West Warren in Dearborn stays open 24 hours a day during the holiday to provide an array of sweets and other foods that are eaten before and after fasting.

   “We make a couple of special treats during Ramadan only,” says owner Hussein Siblini. “One is called mushath, it’s a flat, oval bread with sesame seeds that we serve fresh and hot every morning. People like to just grab it and eat it, but it’s delicious spread with yogurt or cheese. You can also serve it with a meal.”

The other treat is called kalaj, and Siblini says “my customers’ day is ruined if they don’t have it.” Kalaj consists of thin sheets of dough dipped in milk, then stuffed with a heavy cream, deep-fried and finally sprinkled with sugar or drizzled with honey.

Siblini also has a huge selection of meat pies, spinach pies, lentil dishes, hommous, soups, salads and breads, which he serves around the clock.

    And while Siblini is busy at the bakery during the day, his wife, Dina, spends the day cooking at home for the family, which includes their two daughters, Tamara, 4 and Aya, 2. “We take turns going to relatives’ homes to give the ladies a break. Thirty days is a long time to fix an elaborate meal every night,” Siblini says.

“But the idea is not to overindulge (when breaking the fast),” cautions Macki. “Ramadan is a time for our personal health. We abstain and give some type of a break to our systems. We don’t eat too much because our stomachs have shrunk, we don’t want to hurt ourselves, it loses its meaning when you indulge.”

Still, Macki says Ramadan is a very festive time. “Hundreds of people, young and old, come out, and they’ll be all up and down Warren, going into shops and restaurants.

    And even though it’s a true test for a Muslim to fast during the Christmas and Hanukkah season when homes and offices are filled with food, imagine how hard it must be to fast all day until 10 p.m., which happens when Ramadan falls during the summer months.

   Because the Islamic calendar does not follow a solar cycle, the observance of Ramadan begins 11 days earlier every year. “Summer is the most difficult because of Daylight Savings Time,” says Macki. “We don’t get to eat until as late as 10 o’clock. It’s hard to go without food and water that long. At that point that Snickers bar in the candy machine is looking mighty tempting. Heck, even a Twinkie looks gourmet.”

What is Ramadan?

Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic lunar calendar, commemorates the month in 610 A.D. when the prophet Mohammed was said to have received revelations from God that later became Islam’s holy book, the Koran. It begins with the sighting of the crescent moon on the evening following the new moon and lasts for 29 or 30 days depending on the lunar cycle. By fasting, Muslims believe they can learn the discipline and self-restraint that Mohammed preached.

Islamic law exempts the elderly, the ill, young children, pregnant women and nursing mothers from Ramadan’s fasting requirements, but when the sun sets, everyone participates in the celebration.