Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calender and a time during which 1.7 billion Muslims around the world – including 2.5 million in the US – observe an obligatory fast from dawn until sunset. It was in Ramadan that the Koran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, an event Muslims mark by fasting, reading the Koran, performing additional prayers, and giving in charity.
The Arabic word for fasting, sawm, means "to refrain," and Muslims believe the entire body fasts during Ramadan – the tongue from backbiting, the eyes from seeing unlawful things, and the ears from listening to gossip or obscene language, for example. As such, Ramadan acts as a month-long exercise in discipline, cleansing, and refocusing one’s attention on worshipping God.
