>>asim+(OP)
Another note, one of the main ideas of Ramadan is to experience the struggle of the poor, who can't find food to eat.

> its purpose being to cleanse the soul by freeing it from harmful impurities. Muslims believe that Ramadan teaches them to practice self-discipline, self-control,[65] sacrifice, and empathy for those who are less fortunate, thus encouraging actions of generosity and compulsory charity (zakat).[66]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

>>asim+(OP)
Ramadan has little to do with intermittent fasting: the former is a religious prescription enforced by law in some countries [1], the latter is completely up to the individual.

Happy Eid.

[1] https://www-lepoint-fr.translate.goog/monde/algerie-2-ans-de...

>>jorts+E41
There is some weak evidence out there that periodic fasting can induce a host of salutary changes in the GI-tract microbiome.

https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/fasting-gut-health-science

>>aditya+7h1
A study on judicial rulings show a link between rulings and the time they have been issued between food breaks [1]. It appears that the more hungry the judges are, the less they show clemency.

Similarly, living in a Mulsim country, I have not observed the virtues that supposedly stem from religious fasting.

[1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1018033108

>>H8cril+Ah1
Yes, numbers in Arabic are LTR even when they're used mid (RTL) sentence.

We'd also use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals instead of the confusingly named (western) Arabic numbers 0123456789...

>>zvmaz+wc1
At least it doesn't seem like the law in question was specifically about enforcing Ramadan, rather a sinister abuse of the general "Blasphamy law"[1] which exists in some non-muslim countries too.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20171211105140/http://freethough...

>>jacoop+wb1
Hate to be that guy, but that's not at all what Islam says about why fasting was prescribed, and it's actually super clear about the purpose. I mean this is pretty basic, so I don't know why I keep hearing that same old line.

"O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may develop God-consciousness." https://quran.com/2/183

>>simion+bp1
The ancient Egyptians were spectacularly insular and xenophobic, though. If anyone was going to make up their own belief system, probably out of spite, it's them.

What evidence there is specifically in this case suggests that the monotheistic middle eastern religions were derived from the evolution of a polytheistic belief system into a monotheistic one via a stopping-off point that acknowledged multiple deities, but consistently only worshipped one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israelites and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh are worth a read, and there are several references to multiple gods in the Old Testament, often in the PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE OTHER GODS BEHIND THE CURTAIN sense rather than as direct callouts, as you'd expect.

So unless we might mean that the sidetracking happened before the archaeological record of Canaanite polytheism starts, it's not really tenable as a suggestion.

I do not say this to devalue or challenge anyone's beliefs today; just that ignoring facts has a tendency not to go well. The moral and personal value of religious belief need not, to my mind, lean on historical record for its validity.

>>tppiot+St1
I can't read the full article, but The Atlantic has covered it: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/ho...

I know in Space astronauts are told to follow the timezone of where they are from

>>Toobam+ym1
Technical note: "Happy Eid Mubarak" is a phrase is a bit like "Happy Merry Christmas", since "Eid Mubarak" translates as "Blessed Eid".

"Eid Mubarak" is fine as is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Fitr#General_rituals

>>islotr+0p1
Please don't take HN into religious flamewar. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

>>Juliat+wq1
It's going too far to interpret this as "tangent to proselytism". People can wish each other well without coming close to that.

The occasional celebratory post is fine on HN. If it were to become repetitive, it would get tedious quickly and we would downweight such posts in keeping with standard practice (see [1] and [2] about that).

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

>>asim+(OP)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_Mubarak

>>shephe+Ns1
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/breakfast-adults-sk...

> One in four adults skip breakfast most days, says survey

>>soulof+hz1
Big thread about it recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35491060

>>tppiot+St1
Have a look at this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6vfsYwXW6I.

The most misunderstood part about Islam is that how practical the religion is - Islam expects believers to give it their best shot, within reason and without being judged by some rigid binary rule.

It's perfectly okay to not fast for 22 hours and it's also okay if you can make it. Islam prioritizes health and well being.

>>kjells+aA1
I agree that they can add up to a lot of noise but at the same time their spirit is nice enough that it feels churlish to try to negate them. In cases like this we usually go by what pg wrote 15 years ago:

Empty comments can be ok if they're positive. There's nothing wrong with submitting a comment saying just "Thanks." What we especially discourage are comments that are empty and negative—comments that are mere name-calling.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

>>asim+(OP)
Every time Ramzan rolls out, we here in Pakistan have squabbles over eye-witness evidence of moon sightings and thus start (and stop) of the holy month. We will be celebrating Eid on Saturday but some celebrated today following Saudi Arabia. It's an annual tradition of confusion.

Also, this: https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/567790-intent-law

>>h1fra+YS1
That's the other Eid,[1] which is related to the islamic pilgrim which occurs in Mecca mainly

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha

>>hd4+Lr1
There are multiple interpretations for this, tqawa can include helping the poor.

(In Arabic) https://islamqa.info/ar/answers/232635/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8...

>>girish+FT1
Nicotine Vapes - Look at the effective dosage of JUULs capsules for example [0]. This combined with the ease of use, the removal of the (unpleasant) smoke, increased social acceptance (often indoors too) and a huge advertising campaign deliberately targeting teens [1] created a lot of new smokers/nicotine addicts (and converted some) that smoke more often and at much higher dosages.

[0] https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416371/juul-delivers-subst...

   The research found that blood nicotine concentrations in the JUUL group (136.4 ng/ml) was eight times higher than e-cigs group (17.1 ng/ml) and 5.2 times higher than cigarettes (26.1 ng/ml).

[1] https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-toba...

>>mardif+fX1
Moon 'sighting' is much earlier than the Islamic tradition. It's discussed in the Mishna, so it was at least debated in the 2nd century CE: https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Rosh_Hashanah.2?lang=bi

The charitable case is that while something might be predictable, it's our conscious interaction that's important to these religions, not the theoretical knowledge.

The uncharitable case is that religions derive a lot of power from being able to fix time, and this demonstrates their sovereignty over people's lives in this sphere.

>>countt+zK1
(in reply to the post you just sent) I can't actually reply to comments that far down, I guess that's a HN quirk I didn't notice all this time until just now but yeah I also just covered that in a reply to someone else https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35657964

>>nullch+Zg1
Look into Zoroastrianism, the grand-daddy of monotheistic religions. About 1800 years before Islam. They didn't fast more than one day a year, if that.

"In Zoroastrianism or Mazdaism, however, fasting has been implicitly rejected throughout the faith’s history. Zoroastrian doctrine perceives no disjunction between spirit and matter along lines of good and evil; rather, it regards both as essential for achieving piety and both as susceptible to unrighteousness. Hence, Zoroastrians believe that the body should function as a means by which the soul can fight evil and regard any action that physically weakens the body as sinful. Moreover, sex is viewed as essential for procreation which brings more believers into the world. Standard or Young Avestan texts such as the Vidēvdād (Avesta, ed. Geldner, 3.33, 4.48, 7.70) emphasized that eating was essential for life, claimed consumption of meat enhanced spiritual perception, and suggested hunger and thirst caused much suffering. Pahlavi commentaries continued this anti-ascetic theme, stressing the notion of moderation or paymān between gluttony and privation in partaking of food, drink, and sex. Piety was said to result from not fretting about moderate consumption, and deviation from this mean was equated with concupiscence (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, pp. 267, 295)." https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/fasting

Then Mani came along, introduced fasting. It was the main rival to Christianity before Islam came along. Both Islam and Christianity are heavily influenced by Mani and vice versa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism

>>Joreng+Aw2
yes, this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

>>rsynno+Xv1
In Torah, months start when a crescent moon is sighted with an unaided eye without a binocular. They have moon charts like this in their calendars. https://eliyah.com/calendar2023.pdf There’s one holy day that starts on the first day of the seventh month.

>>rsynno+Xv1
Yes. See: https://www.moonsighting.com/1444shw.html

>>asim+(OP)
Ramadan festival in Sydney

https://www.notquitenigella.com/2023/04/13/ramadan-nights-fe...

>>desert+Li3
I recommend checking out this documentary series [0]. I also don’t think a comment thread is an appropriate place to get to know Islam. Religion of Islam is maybe the heaviest of topics to discuss, with the depth of philosophy, yet simple in its fundamentals which even a child can understand, with a knowledge load and literature comparable to material sciences, offering a comprehensive explanation to the life we came to perceive and a complete solution to our problems.

As for my experience, suffice it to say I’m more in peace more I live according to Islam, and I see the same in everyone else around me. I’m Muslim and live in a muslim country btw.

[0]: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcnL9bB-q3ymnRNcpZGcVVjiD...

>>llamaz+iZ5
Nope. These numerals got to Arabic from India, where writing is LTR, and the digit order was unchanged during that transition and the transition to Europe. The order we use is the original order. They're called Hindu-Arabic numerals [1] for a reason, and in Arabic the equivalent [2] are called Indian numbers (أَرْقَام هِنْدِيَّة) [3]!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals

[3] https://translate.google.com/?sl=ar&tl=en&text=%D8%A3%D9%8E%...

>>Joreng+fw2
You introduced the term sociopath, not me. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_portrayals_of_psychopat...