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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Muhammad Abdulsater

In a world where eating has become solitary and rushed, Ramadan restores something radical: shared time

During Ramadan ‘people pause together, watch the same light fade over the horizon, hear the same call to prayer and reach for food at the same time’, writes Muhammad Abdulsater
During Ramadan ‘people pause together, watch the same light fade over the horizon, hear the same call to prayer and reach for food at the same time’, writes Muhammad Abdulsater. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

Iftar isn’t just eating, it’s synchronisation. Everyone waits. Everyone eats together. It is a rare moment of collective rhythm.

In a world where eating has become solitary and rushed, Ramadan restores something quietly radical: shared time. Iftar is not simply the moment hunger ends but the moment waiting becomes collective. People pause together, watch the same light fade over the horizon, hear the same call to prayer and reach for food at the same time. There is no personalised schedule, no eating on the run. This age-old ritual insists that nourishment is not only physical but spiritual and social, that being fed is being seen.

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