Daniel A.'s Reviews > FASTING FOR RAMADAN: Notes from a Spiritual Practice

I was originally recommended Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice by a friend, Jen Gordon, who compared author Kazim Ali's experiences fasting for an entire month to her own experiences fasting for a day at a time in Jewish ritual. What made Fasting for Ramadan so resonant for me was Ali's experience of fasting as a way to bring focus to his spiritual life; certainly during some years, Yom Kippur—the only date on the Jewish calendar on which I fast regularly these days—qualifies for me as uplifting in a similar sense.

Ali, a professor of literature and creative writing at Oberlin, has a resonant experience in part because his descriptions of his monthlong fast are ecumenical. Multiple times, he mentions that he wishes all people could experience the closeness to the divine that he feels at the best times during his fast, and he represents a poster man against those Islamophobes who denounce the religion as barbaric and radical; he is neither of those things. Ali's experience in Fasting for Ramadan is philosophical, and it is moving to see how someone connects to holiness in his own particular way.

All in all, a valuable contribution to religious literature.