Ramadan: What it means to me
With Ramadan beginning on Wednesday 22nd March, our graduate engineer Mohamed Elsayed shares what it means to him and explains how his colleagues are preparing to support him this year.
Ramadan is approaching and I would like to share what Ramadan is like for me and how Farrans supports me in the best way possible.
Ramadan is one of five pillars we have in Islam and it lasts for 29 or 30 days depending on the moon sighting.
It is a holy month for Muslims as it is the month that the Quran was revealed to the prophet Mohamed. It is often named “month of the Quran.” Therefore, Muslims tend to read the Quran as much as possible and pray as much as possible.
Ramadan involves fasting from sunrise to sunset which means not drinking any liquids or eating any food during that time.
Ramadan is important to us religiously. Additionally, it comes with its health benefits. The body goes into a detox mode and is forced to use the fat reserved in our body, resulting in killing harmful toxins stored within the fat. Fasting also increases your discipline and self-control skills to a very high level as you are not eating or drinking for a very long time.
Ramadan makes us appreciate things that we could have on a daily basis and take them almost for granted, such as food and drinks. Muslims tend to give out plenty of food on a daily basis to people who are in need for them to be able to celebrate the feast like everybody else.
I am grateful for having such an understanding team in the Live Oasis: Strato project. This will be my second time spending Ramadan with the same site team. I feel like my site team have done all they can to make my days go smoothly during Ramadan. It is noticeable that with fasting our energy levels go down as the day goes by and we cannot refill our energy levels during the day.
My site team last year moved the majority of the important tasks and meetings to the mornings instead of afternoons. Darren McIvor (PM) decided to transfer one of rooms in the office into a multi-faith / quiet room, this allowed me to do my prayers during the day. My colleagues would also encourage me and support me to finish my fasting every day.
This year members of my site team have agreed to take on the challenge and do a couple of days of fasting with me.
I did explain to them the steps to take to make the energy level at its highest during the day. This will be a massive boost for me mentally to see other people trying as much as I am and that we are all going through the same thing. Also, we would all be looking forward to having a big feast of food at the sunset time.
My team on the Live Oasis project, and Farrans on the bigger picture, feel like a family. They will support you no matter what you are going through. Farrans is a very diverse company and like to share awareness about different cultures often. I have experienced that myself and want others to experience it as well.