Holy Night in northern Norway

Holy Night of Ramadan in northern Norway

Let me try to explain how should Muslims behave on the Holly Night of Ramadan in northern Norway.

Well, there's nothing to begin with, is there, at least in summer, especially when it's the longest day in the northern hemisphere.

It's an issue, isn't it, for the Muslims who live in the north, to be deprived of the holy night of Ramadan, since there is no night at all.

What does it mean? It raises questions, but it doesn't really offer much answers. I haven't read a serious answer about that issue.


Besides the fact that a seventh century person couldn't know about the Erath being a globules object in space, and the effect of the Sun lightning it, and the poles, and its ascent and not being 90 degrees towards the Sun, and that not everywhere is equinox or about that, or the polar days and night, and the fact that people actually living in those regions, we can also say another thing – related to my post about the geography-related rules – about Ramadan; it is an Arab month in a calendar, it is an Arab custom.

Human’s calendar

Couldn’t we, the rest of the Muslims, delete and erase the Arab calendar, and have the Qur’anic 12 months calculated by the solar year, and have the Ramadan to be the ninth month of that solar year (which is September, which is one of the times in the year near to the equinox? That would enable the whole Erthians to observe the fasting with about 12 horus per day. That would also enable us all to actually have a holly night in all parts of our planet.

I am not sure that fasting should be time framed, because it can’t be in Norway the way it is near the equator.

So, the rule, again, according to my “eliminate geography”, to fast during the month of Ramadan, should stay, but maybe reorganize the calendar.

My “eliminate geography” article focuses on this idea:
I think that whatever is related to geography, like: times of prayers, flora and fauna, length of day, climate, the path of the moon, weather, - should be completely ignored in religion (of Islam). Based on the narration of our prophet, proven to be sensible by the verse from the Recitation, that Arabs have got NO advantage over non-Arabs in terms of religion and piousness.”  

I know that now it is possible to hear complaints on this suggestion, because “the prophet said to fast when we see the new moon, which should mean that we must observe the lunar calendar. However, the prophet said this part in another broader message: "Do not fast until you see the crescent-moon, and do not break the fast until you have seen the crescent moon, but if conditions are overcast for you then enumerate for it."

This website discusses another topic, when to start Ramadan in terms of when the lunar month begins. I am pushing this to a new level, and I say, let’s replace the lunar calendar and “enumerate” it according to the solar calendar. I say this based on the same hadith in which the prophet suggests the seeing of the new moon, but in which he says that we should try to enumerate it. Let’s, then, enumerate it to the fullest. Let’s switch to the Solar year, and use the opportunity of Ramadan being the ninth month of the year, and place it by the September, which also has 30 days, around the equinox.

The calendar that affect lives on earth

I think that all things related to geography and the age of the beginning of Islam should be disregarded in the religion itself. Geography includes not only the reasoning about Ramadan, but also the daily prayers as well. There is no evening prayer in Northern Norway in summer months, and there is no distinction of noon and afternoon prayer in winter months.

Ramadan, first of all, is not even a month. It is an ancient month, from a 1400 years old calendar, which is useless for what the calendar is generally being used for. The thing we call summer actually exists, as well as winter. And we calculate that with the solar calendar. We don’t - nobody does - use the lunar calendar for anything at all, it doesn’t have absolutely no significance. I’m not talking about the names of the months, or the length. It could have been agreed to have 3 months of 121 days or something like that, but the point is that the lives of people do need to adjust according to the Earths revolution around the sun, and absolutely nothing is related to us regarding the lunar movement around the Earth, and the lighted side of it that we see from our planet.

We are used to saying that the Qur’an was revealed in this month. But what does that actually mean? What is a month in time of earth spinning around the sun? What’s it’s significance anyway? Was it in that “lunar” month that doesn’t describe Earth’s real time in its path around the Sun, which actually affects the temperature in our cities depending on what degree it is bent towards the Sun… or the time the Sun travels in the spinning of the Milky Way - which doesn’t affect the lives of humans, or animals.
Not one living creature depends on where the moon is positioned compared to Sun’s rays that reflect to us on earth, but we do depend - just one obvious example are north hemisphere birds that go south during real winter, which exists only in the Solar calendar, or torpor of bears during the real solar calendar's winter.
In september, the ninth month of the today's Sun-based calendar, this is the situation:

Arctic Circle: Experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. The sun is 66.5 degrees off of the zenith or 23.5 degrees above the horizon.
Tropic of Cancer: Experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. The sun is 23.5 degrees off of the zenith.
Equator: The sun is directly overhead the equator at noon on the equinox. On both equinoxes (which means "equal nights" in Latin), the sun is directly over the equator at noon.
Tropic of Capricorn: Experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. The sun is 23.5 degrees off of the zenith.
Antarctic Circle: Experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
Source

So what's the Ramadan then?

It is a month in which the Muslims fast. It's not possible to fast by any of the rules in certian parts of the Earth -  if you do it in northern hemisphere summer, and pretty much it's the same when it's winter. September, the time around the equinox is suitable for the whole world to observe the Ramadan equally, with nobody having "advantage", not only of fasting nearly 12 hours a day (which Arabs mostly do), but fasting at all in certian periods of the year.
Fasting in summer in Northern Europe is really disturbing, not for eating, but since the dinner and a meal generally is a part of human's routine and rituals. It is the time of family gathering. This is impossible to maintain in the Netherlands for example, when you are pissed off the whole afternoon. So instead of being together for the dinner with family and get one of two rewards, you get nothing, just being bored, for having to wait for 10 hours after you get home from work, to have dinner. And without any time to perform the Ramadan volunterily, but desirable evening one hour prayer, it's not long before the sunrise that you have to get back home.

Fasting, anyway, is the point of Ramadan. The action of no action. It is said that when a human is fasting, even during the sleep, he is in the state of active praying. So intentional sustaining from eating or drinking or thinking about having certain other bodily pleasures, such is sexual pleasure, is considered active praying itself. So you can even sleep, and still be praying by fasting. Fasting, therefore, is praying itself. It is ultimate form of praying, as by doing that, the Muslim is becoming one with the God. God is in no need of food, God drinks not. His state is of fasting. It is a state in which we just are, without feeding ourselves, without providing new cells to our body, to prolongue our lives. Of course, during the Ramadan supper, we are getting a party, 30 days in a row, every evening a true party, a family and friends dinner.

It is also good as a charity time. Muslims should, and they do, engage more in the charity.