Ramadan Review, from my Twitter Feed

Guest blog by Irna Qureshi

Until recently, I really hadn’t thought about how much we pick up, almost subliminally, about the people we befriend on social networks. Thanks to their obscure or animated avatars, I couldn’t even tell you what some of the people I chat with on Twitter look like, or what they do for a living, or who they live with. And yet, I’ve come to think of some of my Twitter followers as ‘colleagues’ of sorts. Since I usually work from home, these are the people with whom I have a quick banter throughout the day, as I change pace momentarily to stick the kettle on. I can guess when someone’s having a bad day because they’ll be venting off steam with a particularly noisy tweet. I know which of my followers love Celebrity Big Brother and which ones are deliberately abstaining. I know which ones never miss Newsnight. I can tell you who’s thinking about a detox, who’s currently on a diet, and who’s gluten free. I have a sense of some people’s music tastes and I could even tell you where some of my followers spent their summer holidays.

The month of August was something of a social networking milestone for me. It marked my first Ramadan on Twitter. Of course there were Muslims around the world tweeting about the meaning of Ramadan, reflecting on their faith, and discussing how they were striving to be better Muslims. As I scrolled through my Twitter feed day after day, fast after fast, it occurred to me that the tweets of some of my ‘colleagues’ inadvertently revealed how they were adapting their routines to sustain the rhythm of Ramadan. And occasionally, I read my twitter feed with intrigue when a non-Muslim follower related to Ramadan in his own way.

Ramadan is a time for contemplation. During the month, I often noticed @imran alluding to his spiritual sensibility at the break of dawn. A simple message tweeted in the early hours – (* fajr – announcing the name of the prayer offered at daybreak, together with the crescent moon and star, which are recognised symbols of Islam. Where he might ordinarily check in on Foursquare, I wondered if this was perhaps his interactive way of checking onto a prayer mat instead.

Those observing Ramadan abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to sunset. You can imagine that a lot of thought goes into planning the two meals – sahur, the pre-sunrise meal to commence the fast, and iftar, the meal at sunset to break the fast. Special food is prepared and shared throughout the month too. I frequently exchange food related tweets with @eviesgran and I spotted her jumping on the Ramadan bandwagon rather early: “Tesco had special Asian food offers for Ramadan so I bought a big bag of chilli flakes there,” she tweeted. Midway through the festive month, she shared her joy at the customary arrival of a tray of fragrant food from her Muslim neighbours at iftar time. “I was just wondering what to have to eat and my new Asian neighbours have brought my supper.” @eviesgran accompanied the tweet with a picture of a steaming plate of lamb biryani and sweet multi-coloured rice. A few minutes later, she sent another message: “It’s very tasty. The lad who brought the food said ‘You won’t have to buy takeaways anymore’.”

I’ve come to think of @bashaa as something of a coffee and cake connoisseur thanks to his preoccupation with identifying great breakfast eateries in and around his native ‘Wakey’ (Wakefield). Now he was tweeting his menus for sahur: “just cereal and half a pastry today” or “I’m thinking bagel with egg & cheese and baked beans. That should stop the hunger pangs.”

@bashaa’s iftar meals were the most interesting because the menu varied so much according to his circumstances. He was guaranteed a traditional feast if he was breaking the fast with family: “Pakoras, chips, roast chicken + many other things for #iftar down mums today!” And he didn’t seem to be doing too badly when he had to fend for himself either: “still #homealone. maybe fishcakes for iftari, saw some great tuna lime & coriander ones in saino’s [Sainsburys]. maybe with some veg. and a few wedges.” One evening he had to break his fast with a pizza at a service station on the motorway. On a number of occasions he ate in restaurants with friends. On another occasion, he shared his meal with a group of homeless people in the centre of Leeds.

As Ramadan drew to a close and Muslims speculated about the correct day to celebrate Eid, many of us turned to Twitter for guidance. My followers, of all faiths and none, responded constructively. @RooSarwar tweeted helpfully: “Indians and African Muslims tomorrow, Pakistani, European and others wed[nesday]”. @ThatJoelFella was sympathetic: “One person at work is off tomorrow, the other the day after, confusion all round!”

For the record, Islam is based on the lunar calendar instead of the Gregorian (western) one which we all use day to day. Ramadan is actually the 9^th month of the Islamic calendar, and because the lunar calendar is around 11 days shorter than the western one, the dates of this particularly holy month change slightly from year to year. We celebrate Eid on the first day of the 10^th lunar month, Shawwal. Confusion arises because only the sighting of a new moon can verify the start of another month. And there’s further confusion with Eid celebrations taking place in different parts of the world on different days, but this is simply because the new moon is sighted in different time zones at different times.

My Ramadan review doesn’t quite end there. You see, as I got down to celebrating with my family, Eid greetings began to spring up on my Twitter feed. There was one in particular I found really touching. It said simply, “Eid Mubarak, my friend,” and it came from someone I’ve never even spoken to, and I doubt that he was even celebrating the occasion himself. His greeting, and the gesture behind it, reminded me of the followers who were perhaps eavesdropping (in the nicest possible way) on my conversations but not joining in. How flattering to know that @kelsey_feed had paid enough attention to notice my faith and bothered to tweet me a greeting. I suppose that’s the beauty of social networking, isn’t it. While you’d never normally send festive greetings to a complete stranger, Twitter lets you to do just that.

@irnaqureshi blogs about being British, Pakistani and female in Bradford, against a backdrop of classic Indian films at www.bollywoodinbritain.wordpress.com.