Catholics break fast with Muslim students on campus

Fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday is nothing new to Deanna Koh, but the 20-year-old Catholic just fasted a whole day for the first time, in connection with the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Representatives from the National University of Singapore Catholic Students´ Society pose with Muslim students as they break their fast

The second-year National University of Singapore (NUS) medical undergraduate and five other student representatives from the NUS Catholic Students´ Society joined hundreds of Muslim students to break fast on Sept. 3 on the campus grounds.

The spread included bread, rice, prata, a fried flat bread, curries and colorful traditional Malay cakes. During Ramadan, Muslims refrain from all food and drink, even water, from dawn to dusk.

Koh, who had a sandwich for breakfast and drank only water during the day, was initially worried she might not be able to keep the fast.

“I´ve never done this before. I guess it wasn´t so bad apart from the lethargy,” she said. “In fact I was able to accompany my friends for meals and watch them eat without being tempted, because the hunger goes away after a while.”

In her view, fasting the whole day requires more willpower than the Catholic practice on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

“It´s not about not eating, per se, but knowing from the start that you can´t (eat),” she explained, pointing out that as part of the Muslims´ nightly Ramadan prayers they make a promise to keep the fast the next day.

Damien Poon, 22, a second year arts undergraduate also fasted from food and drink except water. He treated the effort as a “Catholic fast, but with the consciousness that I was expressing solidarity with the Muslims.”

“We´re not foreign to fasting,” Poon added.

The NUS Muslim Society invited the non-Muslim students to join them in fasting in order to have an experience of Islamic culture and better understand the religion. It also hoped to encourage and promote interreligious harmony.

Song Xiuhua Shafiqah Nadizah, 22, a fourth-year arts undergraduate who helps the Muslim students´ society on an ad-hoc basis, invited the Catholic students to break fast with her group. It was, she said, “a good way to establish a connection between the two groups on campus, keeping in mind any collaborative events that we might want to host in the future.”

Rafi Rashid, 27, a doctoral student in engineering, told the guests them that Muslims typically break the daily fast with dates and water before the maghrib prayers that Muslims recite every day at sunset.

He explained that the goal of fasting is to contain one´s desires and, as such, one´s desire to sin.

“The basic role of fasting is to instill discipline and to attain a shield against evil,” he said. “We spend the year eating to our fill. Why can´t we fast one month for God?”

But Rashid added that fasting is a matter between oneself and God, and no one else need know.

The Catholic students saw similarities between the two faiths with regard to fasting.

Poon noted that both faiths regarded fasting “as a means towards strengthening our relationship with God”.

Koh remarked: “We both believe that fasting sharpens our ability to reject our desires. It is not so much a ritual or tradition, but rather in choosing not to satisfy our hunger, we may be less inclined to satisfy sinful desires.”

She added that both faiths believe fasting was instituted and encouraged by God and the virtues extolled in the Qur´an and the Bible.

Following the meal, the Catholic students joined the Muslim students in their nightly prayers.

“It wasn´t just an observational exercise, but a fully participative one in which we fasted together and offered praise and supplication to God by joining in reciting the salat after the evening meal,” Koh said.

She described the experience of praising God along with the Muslim students as wonderful, calling it especially beautiful to prostrate oneself before God and offer one´s service.

“For me it was a reminder of the awesome nature of God,” she said.

Koh also said she had an opportunity that day to share with some Muslim girls on Catholic beliefs, especially the concept of the Holy Trinity. She hopes she can faithfully represent Catholics and the belief that one “needs to love one another as Christ has loved us,” regardless of religion.