Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice

by Kazim Ali

Overview

Fasting for Ramadan is structured as a chronicle of daily meditations, during two cycles of the 30-day rite of daytime abstinence required by Ramadan for purgation and prayer. Estranged in certain ways from his family’s cultural traditions when he was younger, Ali has in recent years re-embraced the Ramadan ritual, and brings to this rediscovery an extraordinary delicacy of reflection, a powerfully inquiring mind, and the linguistic precision and ardor of a superb poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932195941
Publisher:	Tupelo Press
Publication date:	04/15/2011
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	0.48(w) x 5.00(h) x 8.00(d)

About the Author

Kazim Ali is author of two volumes of poetry, THE FAR MOSQUE (Alice James Books, 2005) and The Fortieth Day (BOA Editions, 2008), four books of prose—the novels QUINN'S PASSAGE (BlazeVOX Books, 2004) and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SETH (Etruscan Press, 2009); a collection of critical writing, Orange Alert: Essays on Poetry, Art and the Architecture of Silence (University of Michigan Press, 2010), and the inspirational memoir FASTING FOR RAMADAN (Tupelo Press, 2011)—as well as a mixed-genre book, Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities (Wesleyan University Press, 2009), finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for Poetry and the Lantern Award for Memoir. Born to Indian parents living in England and raised in Canada and the U.S., Ali has worked as a political organizer, lobbyist, yoga instructor, and professor. Founding editor of Nightboat Books, he now teaches at Creative Writing and Literature at Oberlin College and in the University of Southern Maine's low-residency M.F.A. program.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface - IX

New Moon in the Western Sky: Ramadan Essays - I

Absence of Stars: A Fasting Notebook - 113

Coda: Breaking the Fast - 173

Recipes - 183

Acknowledgments - 195

Editorial Reviews

Poet, essayist, and creative writing teacher Ali (Bright Felon) adds a postmodern twist to the venerable tradition of spiritual journals with this collection of public blog posts and intimate reflections about his experiences fasting for Ramadan, the Muslim season of cleansing, self-discipline, and humility. Constructed around two 30-day cycles, Ali provides subtle yet robust daily meditations on the shifting levels of his spiritual awareness and attention while he refrains from food and water during daylight hours. "The body is like the fasting month itself," writes Ali, "with its own periods of activity and restraint, its own nights of revelation." Drawing on Quranic verses, adages recalled from childhood, and unsparing introspection, Ali brings a razor-sharp minimalism to his prose. From morning runs through the pre-dawn streets in Oberlin, Ohio, planning his high-protein morning meal to post-dusk iftar meals with students who offer prayers in his yoga studio, readers are wooed with intelligent prose onto this pilgrim's path. Those seeking traditional Islamic piety or a logic-driven religious apologetic will not find it here. Instead, Ali boldly sketches the modern artist engaged in an ancient religious practice in an age of iftar Tweetups and iQuran mobile phone apps.
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