The Philosophy, Religion and Ethics Department
Eid-al-Fitr arrived last weekend for Muslims all around the world. Some had to wait patiently for the crescent moon to be sighted after other countries declared it on Friday. Our Curiosity Corridor made another debut with examples of Muslim art and patterns. A big thank you to Mr Shabir for helping to organise the display with pupils from across all year groups. Pupils have been in touch with us to tell us about their celebrations and Miss D regularly updates our Twitter Feed.
Our Muslim friends celebrated last weekend and Fatima in Year 9 sent us one of her pictures and five words to sum up her experience:
Celebration, Joy, Thankful, Worship, Connection
We loved hearing about Salman’s celebrations from the weekend. Their family is from Morocco, and they wore traditional clothes to the mosque, ate a traditional Moroccan roast chicken, and their sister had henna on her hands.
We’ve included some blogs from some of our students:
As a Muslim with Type 1 diabetes, I am exempt from fasting; however, after hearing of people with the same condition as me fasting, I wanted to give it a try and decided that this Ramadan was a good time; I had almost all the holidays to do it. I asked my doctor about it and she suggested that I half-fasted; I waited until school finished and the holiday started so that I was at home when I was fasting. My overall experience is that I enjoyed it. I was proud of myself, because I managed to do a good amount of fasting, I achieved a full fast instead of a half-fast and I really did feel closer to my religion. There are two days out of around 8-9 or so days where I had to break my fast early. Both of these occurred 1 hour before the time which I was supposed to break my fast. I specifically remember on Saturday, I went low. That day I went swimming, shopping, praying at the mosque and more. Since it was a lot of activity, it eventually ended in me going low just an hour and a half or so before I had to break my fast. Despite this I still fasted the rest of the day. All in all, I am happy with my achievement and I think I might try again next year! Salman (Year 7)
It goes without saying that fasting can be tough and challenging at times, but yet again, the month of Ramadan has passed faster than ever and has brought many blessings along with it. In a busy and hectic life, it can be hard to truly spiritually connect but this month has created time to step back from studying and provide an element of peace and solace. Not only that, Ramadan is a time to lapse into the community, meeting and eating with friends and family! Yusuf (Year 12)
My time fasting, I think that throughout the month I had ups and downs particularly at the start of the month. Trying to get into the habit of getting up early and then going to sleep later than usual as I would go to the night prayer (taraweeh) an hour after we had opened our fast. The hardest part of my time fasting was most likely the in school activities that we did like athletics in games or pe. I think the easiest part of the entire experience was a holiday which gave a few extra hours to sleep in each morning so I was prepared for each. My favourite part of Ramadan is the, as I think of it reward of eid-al-fitr. During eid I met some of my cousins that I had not seen for around a year. I also got to see my cousins who are off at uni in different cities. After we met together at my grandparents house all of the smaller children played football together on the pitch behind my grandparents house. To conclude, me and some of my older cousins and also my aunties and uncles watched an asian movie called shehzada. Zain (Year 9)
During Ramadan, my fast started before sunrise at around 4 in the morning. I ate a meal and drank water, ready to start my fasting. Before going back to sleep, I prayed Fajr, one of the 5 daily prayers. In the morning, I felt tired but since I wasn’t eating breakfast, I could wake up a bit later. At school, I tried to preserve energy at breaktime. As I normally play cricket, I tried to stay inside. Lunchtime, for me, was the hardest time. I was surrounded by food, but I learnt to control myself. I prayed Zuhr, the second daily prayer with my friends who were fasting. It felt good to pray as one. When I came home, I prayed Asr, the third daily prayer. I also prepared the house for when we break the fast, Iftar. When it finally came, I was relieved and broke the fast with family and friends. Ramadan was great! Sadaqat (Year 7)
After waking up for Seri, which is the breakfast Muslims have to close their fast, we read the Fajr prayer and go back to sleep. The next morning, I got ready for school without having breakfast and went to school. At school, the lessons carried on as normal for me, but at lunch, I decided to sit in the lunch hall with my friends, even though I couldn’t eat. After that, we had our last 2 lessons and then it was the end of the day. At home, I went to sleep for a bit, and then I helped prepare for iftar. When it was time, we opened our fast with water and dates, then had a delicious dinner to end the day. Finally, I went to sleep quickly, so I could wake up for sehri and school. Inaya (Year 7)
My time fasting, I think that throughout the month I had ups and downs particularly at the start of the month. Trying to get into the habit of getting up early and then going to sleep later than usual as I would go to the night prayer (taraweeh) an hour after we had opened our fast. The hardest part of my time fasting was most likely the in school activities that we did like athletics in games or pe. I think the easiest part of the entire experience was a holiday which gave a few extra hours to sleep in each morning so I was prepared for each.
My favourite part of Ramadan is the, as I think of it reward of Eid-al-fitr. During Eid I met some of my cousins that I had not seen for around a year. I also got to see my cousins who are off at uni in different cities. After we met together at my grandparents house all of the smaller children played football together on the pitch behind my grandparents house. To conclude, me and some of my older cousins and also my aunties and uncles watched an Asian movie called shehzada.
The first couple days of fasting were difficult especially after the time went forward by an hour meaning we’d break our fast one hour later. However, as the month went on the fasting got easier and easier as I got more used to it. The hardest part was fasting in school where everyone is drinking in lessons and especially at lunchtime where you watch everyone eating in front of you. As well as this we had to do mock exams during this period and the fasting while trying to revise was especially hard. Abdullah (Year 11)
To all members of our school community who celebrated, and their family and friends, we would like to say Ramadan Mubarak and Eid Mubarak!
