The Ramadan Pole Paradox: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Extreme fasting windows: I have added in more context of the polar/spherical earth effect causing difficulties/impossibilities in following Ramadam instructions. And added a section showing the unfairness across the globe that this causes, which wouldn't be apparent if there was a flat earth. And thirdly some notes on prayers having similar issues)
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A Muslim was fasting in Iceland, according to some scholars, would have to fast for nearly the entire day.
A Muslim fasting in Iceland, according to some scholars, would have to fast for nearly the entire day.  
 
'''Differences across regions'''
 
There are also vastly different fasting windows depending on which country you are in. For example, in 2023, as this Al-Jazeera [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/20/ramadan-2023-fasting-hours-and-iftar-times-around-the-world article] explains '''Muslims living in the world’s southernmost countries, such as Chile or New Zealand, will fast for an average of 12 hours while those living in northernmost countries, such as Iceland or Greenland, will have 17-plus hours fasts''<nowiki/>'.<ref>[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/20/ramadan-2023-fasting-hours-and-iftar-times-around-the-world#:~:text=The%20pre%2Dsunrise%20to%20sunset,in%20the%20world%20you%20are.&text=The%20Muslim%20holy%20month%20of,you%20are%20in%20the%20world. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/20/ramadan-2023-fasting-hours-and-iftar-times-around-the-world#:~:text=The%20pre%2Dsunrise%20to%20sunset,in%20the%20world%20you%20are.&text=The%20Muslim%20holy%20month%20of,you%20are%20in%20the%20world.]</ref><ref>https://blog.wego.com/longest-and-shortest-ramadan-fasting-hours/</ref> (This article assumes those above 18 hours will follow a fatwa to fast according to timings in Mecca, or the nearest Muslim country).
 
Ramadan is a fast of both food and water, as well as sexual intercourse:
 
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|187}}|Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to your wives; -- they are a vestment for you, and you are a vestment for them. God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, and has turned to you and pardoned you. So now lie with them, and seek what God has prescribed for you. And eat and drink, until the white thread shows clearly to you from the black thread at the dawn; then complete the Fast unto the night, and do not lie with them while you cleave to the mosques. Those are God's bounds; keep well within them. So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing.}}
 
This arguably makes it one of the most physically and mentally challenging aspects of the religion to follow. Due to the Polar effect of our spherical Earth, making sunrise and sunset appear at different times across the planet, the difficulty of following the religious rules are therefore dependent on where one is born/lives rather than a similar universal challenge applied equally to all Muslims.
 
These issue's also affect prayer times that are supposed to be carried out at sunrise and sunset the same way, which can heavily disrupt sleep for those living high in the northern hemisphere.
 
{{Quote|{{Quran|17|78}}|Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn is ever witnessed.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|11|114}}|Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night. Lo! good deeds annul ill-deeds. This is reminder for the mindful.}}


==Criticisms==
==Criticisms==
[[Image:Arctic Ocean.png|thumb|upright=1.6|The North Pole.]]Some have asked, if one is to follow the timings of their home city, what is to be the practice of a permanent Muslim resident or even community in near-polar regions. Additionally, when it comes to regions where the day extends to be weeks or even months, the time-window of fasting for the "closest country" where the fasting window is under a day, the time frame usually still ends up being near 24-hours.
[[Image:Arctic Ocean.png|thumb|upright=1.6|The North Pole.]]Some have asked, if one is to follow the timings of their home city, what is to be the practice of a permanent Muslim resident or even community in near-polar regions. Additionally, when it comes to regions where the day extends to be weeks or even months, the time-window of fasting for the "closest country" where the fasting window is under a day, the time frame usually still ends up being near 24-hours.
As mentioned in the opening paragraphs many sheiks have understood the extreme difficulty of undertaking this fast, and so various conflicting fatwa's have been issued on the subject,<ref>https://aboutislam.net/shariah/shariah-and-humanity/shariah-and-life/muslims-north-fast-23-hours-day/3/</ref> with some simply stating to follow to Qur'an, making it near impossible and unfair for those living there compared to other countries with much shorter fasting periods. While others recognising the problem, have created man-made laws that directly contradict the Qur'an's instruction on this matter - usually to fast along with the nearest Muslim country or Meccan times, regardless of the actual sunrise and sunset of the local area.
This (polar) effect also means a serious 'unfairness' across the globe during Ramadan, with vastly different time windows to carry out fasting, making it's difficulty and relevant ease dependent on the 'luck' of where one happens to be living.


Classical and conciliatory modern perspectives likewise appear unable to comfortably deal with the case of Astronauts, and eventually persons settling on extra-terrestrial bodies (moons, other planets, spacecraft, etc.). There is also the question of facing the [[Kaaba]] in [[Mecca]], a city on earth, whilst not on earth. As there have been Muslim astronauts (e.g. Anousheh Ansari<ref>Behrouz Saba - [http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=894da88516d540eef2d9b4b388da8c8e First Female Muslim Astronaut Could Help Bridge U.S.-Iran Gap] - New America Media, September 20, 2006</ref>) some scholars have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Muszaphar_Shukor#Spaceflight_and_religion created] guidelines for these cases (one scholar wrote a handbook called ''[[w:Sheikh_Muszaphar_Shukor#Spaceflight_and_religion|Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah) at the International Space Station]]'').  
Classical and conciliatory modern perspectives likewise appear unable to comfortably deal with the case of Astronauts, and eventually persons settling on extra-terrestrial bodies (moons, other planets, spacecraft, etc.). There is also the question of facing the [[Kaaba]] in [[Mecca]], a city on earth, whilst not on earth. As there have been Muslim astronauts (e.g. Anousheh Ansari<ref>Behrouz Saba - [http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=894da88516d540eef2d9b4b388da8c8e First Female Muslim Astronaut Could Help Bridge U.S.-Iran Gap] - New America Media, September 20, 2006</ref>) some scholars have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Muszaphar_Shukor#Spaceflight_and_religion created] guidelines for these cases (one scholar wrote a handbook called ''[[w:Sheikh_Muszaphar_Shukor#Spaceflight_and_religion|Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah) at the International Space Station]]'').  

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The Geographic South Pole

According to Islamic laws set out in the Qur'an and hadith, the keeping and breaking of a fast and the times of prayer, among other things, are related to times of sunrise and sunset. As one gets closer to the North or South Pole, the day or night can extend to up to several months each. At the North Pole itself, daylight and darkness lasts for more than 6 months at a time. Extending the five daily prayers of a period of several months appears to undermine the Islamic ritual, however, and fasting for such a period is evidently impossible.

Concessions and fatwas

Islamic scholars have thus issued fatwas instructing Muslims to follow the schedule of their original country or the schedule of the closest country with a distinguishable day and night. However, many Islamic scholars have declared that Muslims must fast for periods of up to and even beyond 20 hours.[1]

Extreme fasting windows

See the following list. Fasting begins at Dawn and ends at Sunset.

COUNTRY DATE DAWN SUNSET LENGTH OF FAST
Oslo, Norway Jun 28, 2014 2:27 AM 10:43 PM 20h 16m
Juneau, Alaska Jun 28, 2014 2:25 AM 10:07 PM 19h 42m
Reykjavik, Iceland Jun 30, 2014 1:34 AM 12:02 AM 22h 28m

A Muslim fasting in Iceland, according to some scholars, would have to fast for nearly the entire day.

Differences across regions

There are also vastly different fasting windows depending on which country you are in. For example, in 2023, as this Al-Jazeera article explains 'Muslims living in the world’s southernmost countries, such as Chile or New Zealand, will fast for an average of 12 hours while those living in northernmost countries, such as Iceland or Greenland, will have 17-plus hours fasts'.[2][3] (This article assumes those above 18 hours will follow a fatwa to fast according to timings in Mecca, or the nearest Muslim country).

Ramadan is a fast of both food and water, as well as sexual intercourse:

Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to your wives; -- they are a vestment for you, and you are a vestment for them. God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, and has turned to you and pardoned you. So now lie with them, and seek what God has prescribed for you. And eat and drink, until the white thread shows clearly to you from the black thread at the dawn; then complete the Fast unto the night, and do not lie with them while you cleave to the mosques. Those are God's bounds; keep well within them. So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing.
Quran 2:187

This arguably makes it one of the most physically and mentally challenging aspects of the religion to follow. Due to the Polar effect of our spherical Earth, making sunrise and sunset appear at different times across the planet, the difficulty of following the religious rules are therefore dependent on where one is born/lives rather than a similar universal challenge applied equally to all Muslims.

These issue's also affect prayer times that are supposed to be carried out at sunrise and sunset the same way, which can heavily disrupt sleep for those living high in the northern hemisphere.

Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn is ever witnessed.
Quran 17:78
Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night. Lo! good deeds annul ill-deeds. This is reminder for the mindful.
Quran 11:114

Criticisms

The North Pole.

Some have asked, if one is to follow the timings of their home city, what is to be the practice of a permanent Muslim resident or even community in near-polar regions. Additionally, when it comes to regions where the day extends to be weeks or even months, the time-window of fasting for the "closest country" where the fasting window is under a day, the time frame usually still ends up being near 24-hours.

As mentioned in the opening paragraphs many sheiks have understood the extreme difficulty of undertaking this fast, and so various conflicting fatwa's have been issued on the subject,[4] with some simply stating to follow to Qur'an, making it near impossible and unfair for those living there compared to other countries with much shorter fasting periods. While others recognising the problem, have created man-made laws that directly contradict the Qur'an's instruction on this matter - usually to fast along with the nearest Muslim country or Meccan times, regardless of the actual sunrise and sunset of the local area.

This (polar) effect also means a serious 'unfairness' across the globe during Ramadan, with vastly different time windows to carry out fasting, making it's difficulty and relevant ease dependent on the 'luck' of where one happens to be living.

Classical and conciliatory modern perspectives likewise appear unable to comfortably deal with the case of Astronauts, and eventually persons settling on extra-terrestrial bodies (moons, other planets, spacecraft, etc.). There is also the question of facing the Kaaba in Mecca, a city on earth, whilst not on earth. As there have been Muslim astronauts (e.g. Anousheh Ansari[5]) some scholars have created guidelines for these cases (one scholar wrote a handbook called Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah) at the International Space Station).

Considering Muhammad and his 7th century companions, living in the Arabian desert, likely did not know about the earth having poles and being spherical, the shortcomings of Islamic law in these regards are generally found to be unsurprising.

See Also

  • Fasting - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Fasting
  • Cosmology - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Cosmology

Translations

  • A version of this page is also available in the following languages: Bengali. For additional languages, see the sidebar on the left.

External Links

References

  1. ↑ "Indeed, the fasts may be twenty hours long, but this is something one will have to adhere to." Fasting in extreme latitudes - Sunnipath.com Q&A
  2. ↑ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/20/ramadan-2023-fasting-hours-and-iftar-times-around-the-world#:~:text=The%20pre%2Dsunrise%20to%20sunset,in%20the%20world%20you%20are.&text=The%20Muslim%20holy%20month%20of,you%20are%20in%20the%20world.
  3. ↑ https://blog.wego.com/longest-and-shortest-ramadan-fasting-hours/
  4. ↑ https://aboutislam.net/shariah/shariah-and-humanity/shariah-and-life/muslims-north-fast-23-hours-day/3/
  5. ↑ Behrouz Saba - First Female Muslim Astronaut Could Help Bridge U.S.-Iran Gap - New America Media, September 20, 2006
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