Celebrating Ramadan in Ireland (Part 1)

With Ramadan celebrations underway for the Muslim community across the world, we thought we’d ask some of our Saudi Student Amabassadors some of their tips for observing Ramadan while living in Ireland.

Here Mona Almahri offers her advice for student’s celebrating Ramadan in Ireland.

This is the second Ramadan for me in Ireland. It’s not easy to fast almost 19 hours a day, while you are also trying to study.

Last year and this are not comparable due to mass workload of experiments that must be done this year for my University studies. It is challenging; and it feels impossible to get everything done while being dehydrated. Though, if you structure your time evenly, which may include cooking, cleaning and most importantly getting this work done etc, you’ll be able to jump over all barriers which are demotivating you.

You should set a plan to read at least a para of the Qur’an daily (equivalent to 20 pages on a regular sized Qur’an) to be able to read it all the Qur’an by the end of the month, in addition to all your school work.

Dehydration has to be faced by all those who fast, even though it may be classed as dangerous. A few ways to stay hydrated are:

1. Drink plenty of water, that is divided into separate time periods as the body will use more energy if it takes in mass amounts.
2. Nutritional juice, such as avocado with honey and nuts, as they are very good for the body when you break your fast.
3. Also, watermelon and cantaloupe are highly recommended due the water content in these fruits’ very high. In addition, you will not make your body take a longer time to digest those fruits, because they are mostly liquid.

Fruits or mixed salad would be classed as a healthy breakfast, including Yogurt and any kind of soup.

It’s vital to stay away from food which takes a long period of time digest. For example, fried food, such as samosas, makes you feel full after a small amount. So, try as much as you can to avoid saturated fat in your breakfast.

At Sehri, it should be a heavy meal, such as a Saudi Arabian traditional dish called Kabsa 🙂 In addition to a kind of light juice, such as orange or carrot. The rice does very good at filling your body up and prevents you from being thirsty. Also, try to avoid pasta that contains cheese as it assists dehydration.

I personally think that sleeping well is essential as it allows you to waste less energy, which helps you to feel energised and have the ability to work, pray and read the Qur’an.