During Ramadan, a meal to fast on
RANDOLPH - Around 4:15 a.m. on a recent Tuesday morning, Hossam Aljabri is standing in front of his refrigerator removing eggs, butter, cheese, pita, and a plate of canned fava beans seasoned with cumin, oil, and lemon juice, which his wife, Hoda El Sharkawi, put together the night before. A box of California dates sits on a table in the dining room.
El Sharkawi was soon awake, too, and after praying, joined her husband in the kitchen - but not to help. "This is his responsibility," she says approvingly.
Aljabri enjoys preparing suhur, a special pre-dawn breakfast consumed by many Muslims who are observing the Islamic month of Ramadan, when their faith prescribes that they fast during daylight hours. The ninth month on the Muslim lunar calendar, Ramadan takes place this year between Sept. 13 and Oct. 12, and occurs about 10 days earlier every year. While the sunset meal, or iftar, with which Muslims end their daily fasts, is the better known of the two meals, suhur also plays an important practical and spiritual role. Although many Muslim immigrants and their children maintain customs from their countries of origin, life in America is also shaping how they ob serve suhur and what it has come to mean.
"One of the unique things about this meal is that we're always together," says Aljabri. Work - he is an IT architect and president of the Boston chapter of the Muslim American Society - often prevents him from being home by sunset, which at the start of Ramadan was about 7 p.m., and by the end will be a few minutes after 6 p.m. For this early feast, Aljabri has already fried eggs by the time his daughter Eman, 8, who does part-day fasts, joins her parents, and is soon followed by her brother, Ali, 10, who this year started doing full-day fasts. (A third child, 2-year-old Leena, is too young to participate.) The kids are sleepy-eyed, but not a bit grouchy.
"It's nice, I don't have to hassle with the kids," says El Sharkawi. "For school they wake up kind of grumpy. When I say, 'You want to wake up for suhur?' they say, 'Yeah!' "
And it's not yet 4:30 a.m.
But there's something exciting about the early ritual. Zeba Syed, a junior at Harvard, understands the allure of being awake at a time when she should be asleep. Syed, the youngest of three children, didn't start fasting until she was 7, but she started waking up for suhur when she was 5. "Everyone else was up, and it was a fun thing to be up that early in the morning," she says.
Even before dawn, Syed's mother at home in Westchester, N.Y., never caved to the convenience of cold cereal. She would at least prepare eggs and the flatbread naan, or reheat the previous night's leftovers, often kebabs, tandoori chicken, and other South Asian specialties. A few times each month, cousins would spend the night, making suhur even livelier.
"I actually do miss it a lot," says the student.
That's one reason why, on a recent Saturday morning, around 4:30 a.m., she joined more than 20 other Harvard students who sat on the floor of a small apartment in Cambridge eating omelets, blueberry pancakes, biscuits, croissants, and vegetarian sausage. "Pretty much an all-American breakfast," says Omar Ali, one of the hosts.
Muslim students at area universities have found ways to observe suhur, including informal get-togethers. In what has become a tradition in recent years, many go to a local
On most mornings, students observe suhur alone or with roommates, and stick to something simple and sometimes not that filling. "At school, it's more about convenience and what's easiest," says Syed, who often grabs a bagel from the school cafeteria on her way home to eat the next morning.
"Suhurs don't have to be so elaborate," says another student, Daniel Jou, who often has a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or crackers with milk and water.
Indeed, many Muslims say even a small meal eases the fast.
Ali, the host, usually prepares an egg and cheddar cheese sandwich on an English muffin. One morning, he slept through suhur and paid the price. "It really affected me," he says. "I was sluggish throughout the day."
Suhur also has a spiritual side, Muslims believe. A night owl, Islam's prophet Muhammad said nighttime and early morning were the best times for worship. He performed suhur and also advised that whoever partook in suhur would be rewarded with blessings. Many people wake up for a small bite and a glass of water, less concerned about filling their tanks, and more focused on emulating their prophet.
In Randolph, Aljabri and his wife often eat dates, milk, and water. "It does help," El Sharkawi says. "I never skip it." The children have something more substantial. On this particular morning, the couple have a full suhur typical of their native Egypt, where eggs and beans are common because of the protein, as are dates, because of the sugar. Other mornings, Aljabri might have olives and bread or grilled cheese sandwiches.
Today he serves scrambled and sunny-side-up eggs. Eman has a last-minute aversion to everything, so mom suggests Rice Krispies. Eman nods yes. "Say bismillah [in the name of God] before you begin, Eman," El Sharkawi reminds her daughter.
The family is mindful of the wall clock; they have to stop by 5:10 a.m. They talk about plans they have to host an iftar that night.
Ali has had an interesting dream. "I dreamed I ate a pizza today," he says.
When dawn comes, there is calm around the table for a moment. The fast has begun. The family washes up, performs their morning prayer, clears the table, and starts their day. 