“If You Can’t Fast, Give”, Maysoon Zayid, from Disability Visability
This chapter is comparatively short when it comes to the chapters of Disability Visibility, but I have chosen it because it explores a people, culture and religion that I have very little knowledge about. The chapter titled, “If you can’t fast, give” follows the perspective of the author Maysoon Zayid, a female comedian and actor (I had to look the author up on the internet to determine that she was a woman because she doesn’t give many indicators of her gender in the text.). She describes her experience growing up in a Muslim household, observing the feasts and sacred rituals of Islam as a disabled woman with cerebral palsy. Even though she was exempt from performing the fasting ritual due to her health, she often performed the ritual as a child, during Ramadan – a time to fast and forsake earthly pleasures. As she grew older, it became difficult for Zayid to perform fasting due to her health, and so she began to give to those less fortunate as an alternative fasting. Zayid encourages all Muslim’s who desire to observe Ramadan, but can’t do to their health, to not be ashamed, but to “channel their devotion to charity.”.
Quotations:
“Regardless of the heat, it’s fun to fast for Ramadan when you are in a country where the majority of the folks around you are starving.” – (Pg. 37)
“The Qur’an states clearly in Surah 2, Ayat 185 that those who have medical conditions are pardoned, so I was treated like a champ for fasting. […] I knew that fasting against the odds I had been born with, I’d totally get into heaven and, more important, would get amazing gifts for Eid.” (Pg. 36-37)
“I miss fasting, but I’m happy to take on my newest mission of reminding those who can’t’ fast that there is no reason to put themselves at risk. Muslims fast so they can suffer a little. It is important not to die in the process.” (Pg. 38)
Takeaways:
It’s a wee bit too short. I would have like to have known a little more about the author and her experience, but what she does talk about is enlightening and engaging. When it come’s to the Abrahamic traditions, I’m most familiar with Christianity and Judaism, and know comparatively little about Islam. I knew Ramadan was an important time in the Muslim calendar, but very little else, so to have that explained was very nice. I love the part about “receiving gifts at Eid”, Eid being the celebration that follows Ramadan. It shows that she is like any child – she is not completely selfless or anything; she likes the attention and gifts that come from the act of fasting. She talks about the difficulty of observing her religious rituals in America, and how we often think of these acts as evil, (It’s interesting to contrast it to the other Abrahamic traditions when they observe their fasting traditions, or to compare it to secular fasts for health or mental reasons. You may have your problems with Islam, but fasting as a religious observance shouldn’t be one of them.) In the end, she had to stop fasting because it negatively affected her health, but she was able to still find other ways to follow the tenants of her religion (after all, fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, (along with tithing, pilgrimage, prayer, and the declaration of faith.) It’s nice to read an essay on the positive aspects of Islam.