Scholars advise people to shorten fast

When the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan begins tomorrow, some Muslims around the world will face bigger challenges than others. The Quran is clear that the fast should last from before dawn to after dusk but says nothing about how many hours that might be.

Since Islam has spread from its Arabian heartland to the far reaches of the Earth, Muslims who live farther north must fast several hours longer than those in Mecca. On the year's longest day, June 21, some could end up fasting for as long as 20 hours.

Usama Hasan, a British Islamic scholar, believes this makes Ramadan fasting unbearable for many Muslims living in Northern Europe and Canada, especially the old and children just beginning to observe the practice.

The former imam thinks this should change and has issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, calling for "moderate timings" to be accepted for those who need them.

"In midsummer, the fasts are too long," Hasan said on BBC television on Sunday, just days before Ramadan is expected to start there on Thursday.

Not all of Britain's 2.8 million Muslims agree. A BBC reporter at Friday prayers on June 12 found almost all Muslims at that mosque preparing to face the long hours. Comments on Hasan's blog, where he last year quietly posted the fatwa he is now promoting in public, include several flatly rejecting his ideas.

"We cannot change the principles of Islam just to suit our needs," one reader wrote.

"I'm glad this has started a discussion," Hasan, a senior researcher in Islamic studies at the Quilliam Foundation, told Religion News Service after the BBC interview aired. "There are still relatively few people who adopt this. But this year, there is more awareness and discussion. People have been struggling."

In more recent decades, the respected Syrian-born legal scholar Mustafa al-Zarqa and Egypt's retired Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa have also advocated flexibility.

The fatwa itself makes three short points:

• Anyone willing and able to fast up to 18-21 hours is free to do so.

• Those who cannot can fast "for 12 or preferably 14-16 hours."

• "Whatever length a person fasts, they should not feel superior to others."

Hasan, an astronomer with a doctorate in physics, describes his interpretation of Islam as "traditionalist-rationalist" and says: "I'm trying to express Islam as it is lived in today's context."

Another change he advocates is determining the start of an Islamic month, and therefore the beginning of Ramadan, by scientific calculations.

Ramadan traditionally starts the morning after the naked-eye sighting of the new moon, which sufficed in earlier centuries but is breaking down because of modern communications. If Muslims in Britain or France can't see the new moon because of clouds, they can simply telephone or tweet relatives in Pakistan, Bangladesh or North Africa to see if Ramadan has started there and follow suit if it has.

To critics who say nothing must change, Hasan recalls that Saudi Arabia's top Islamic authorities had to advise the first Muslim astronaut in 1985 how to pray while orbiting the Earth once every 92 minutes in the International Space Station.

Hasan said the fasting issue has also become more urgent in Britain because the longer days this year fall while state schools are still in session. Four primary schools in London recently announced that Muslim students could fast without explicit permission from the headmaster.