Preparing for a COVID-19 Ramadan

Assalamu Alaikum and (almost) Ramadan Mubarak!

This year as Muslims around the world begin their preparation for Ramadan, a 30 day period that includes fasting from sun up to sun down, abstaining from both food and water, and focusing on spiritual growth and community giving, we are faced with some new dilemmas in how we will engage with Ramadan this year. Alhamdulillah, as Muslims living in the West, we are definitely privileged to have access to food, water, medical supplies and shelter during this global pandemic (unlike many in other parts of the world right now); however, even while being privileged, many of us are facing a different kind of barrier- an invisible one, in fact. This barrier is affecting our sleep, our eating patterns, our hydration, our romantic relationships, our family relationships and/or our spiritual foundation. This invisible barrier is our mental health in the time of COVID-19.

With Ramadan beginning in just 10 days Inshallah, some of us have already begun our preparations and may be noticing that there will need to be a lot of changes this year to our usual Ramadan schedule. Some of us may be dreading the long days where we have to shelter-in-place with our families, while others may be celebrating the fact that they will have the opportunity to actually be around family this year. Both feelings are valid. Some of us may be excited to have the opportunity to stay home and are planning to use this time to take a nap during the day so we can perform Tarawih at night, while others are wondering how they will be getting any sleep at all just to wake up for suhoor on time knowing all the kids will be home all day and will need to be tended to at practically all hours of the day (and night). Both feelings are valid. Some may be extremely excited for this Ramadan, while others are trying to be excited but are recognizing that their emotions are falling flat. These feelings are okay. All feelings are okay- why? Is it because we should dread Ramadan? No, because Allah SWT gave us emotions and feelings for a reason and has given each of us our own lives to live with different struggles and different strengths. Even though we may not all be able to connect with one another as we usually do in the masjid or at relative’s houses or friend’s houses, does not mean that we cannot all still connect in other ways. Just because we cannot congregate for Iftar at the masjid, does not mean we cannot seek community in other ways.

Together, let us share how we are striving to prepare for Ramadan this year. Here is a quick list of ways that my family and I have begun to prepare for Ramadan that is mindful of our physical health, mental health and spiritual health needs:

1) Getting Hydrated- we have begun being very mindful of our water consumption since we recognized that while sheltering-in-place neither my husband nor I were getting our recommended water intake in. Now, we are making sure to drink water during meal times and have brought out our work water bottles to carry around while at home. This is especially important when we recognized that fasting was less than 2 weeks away!

2) Listing Our Goals for Ramadan this Year- while we usually do a version of this before Ramadan annually, we were extra mindful while creating our goals this year to make sure that we were not over-doing ourselves while fasting, knowing that our sleep will be impacted not only by Tarawih and Suhoor, but also because we have two little ones that still wake up during the night (which means we get to wake up, yay!). We created an individual goals list, a goals list for us to do as a couple, and a family goals list. Examples included reading 1 juz per night, seeking forgiveness and calling relatives throughout the month to check in on them. This allowed us to set SMART goals (will talk about this more in a future article) that were attainable and realistic for our situation.

3) Designing Islamic Family Activities that are Compliant with Social Distancing- every year a week or so before Ramadan we bust out our Ramadan calendar (basically an Advent calendar but for 30 days) and write out daily activities for us to do to center the kids around a sunnah or to learn something faith-based. Since we both work, these activities are usually about 30-60 minutes per day during the week and 1-2 hours per day on the weekend. This year, we had to revise about 85% of our activities to make them compliant with social distancing. Some substitutes that we used this year for activities are to learn some nasheeds, host a Zoom iftari with family, and make Ramadan food packages that we will leave outside of our home for porch pick-ups for families in need. These activities are always spiritually grounding for our household and also serve as self-care for our mental health.

Writing out our Ramadan family activities.

4) Getting the Home Cleaned and Grocery Shopping Prepared- we are blessed to have enough income to bulk shop for Ramadan so that we don’t have to go out to get groceries throughout the month. We wrote out our halal meat market list today and will phone in that order today, Inshallah, and just completed our regular grocery delivery earlier this week, alhamdulillah. For our vegetables, we took out the ones that will be used this week and next and left those in the fridge and flash froze the rest to stay good for the next several weeks. The rest of the dairy products were refrigerated or frozen and the pantry items were put away. We have been unpacking (we moved the week before COVID-19 hit) and cleaning the house every evening to try and bring some order to our home before fasting starts so that we can dedicate our free time to growth as best as possible.

5) Creating Basic Routines- this has helped us to not step on each other’s toes all day long as I work from home and my husband navigates homeschooling with my kids every morning. This way we are able to get some alone time, some couples time and family time in daily, while adding in time for us to do our hobbies, exercise and relax time. Ramadan can be stressful at times with kids so creating a sense of calm for us is essential.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting mini-blog articles addressing Muslim mental health in Ramadan and how we can work through the not so great times together, Inshallah. To subscribe to these Muslim mental health blog articles for Ramadan, please click here.

We will also be hosting a twice-weekly Zoom support class to bring people together and form community, share practical tips for managing Ramadan while shelter-in-place is in effect, recipe swaps and psychoeducational support on issues pertaining to feelings of depression, anxiety or emotional disconnections. Click here to sign up for the class.

We also have an on-going class called Stressed At Home: Managing Family, Work and Homeschooling Stress from an Islamic and Mindfulness Perspectice. To sign up for the Stressed At Home class, click here.

Jazzakallah khair and may Allah SWT continue to grant us sabr as we work through these trying times together, Inshallah.

Written by Jasmine Ali, MSW, ACSW