As-salamu alaykum, peace be upon you.
First, from the bottom of my heart, Ramadan Kareem to all those who celebrate this holy month. Ramadan Kareem to all those who year after year find peace and excitement in the most beautiful month of the year. It always feels like coming home after a long journey. As if Ramadan itself has been waiting for you specifically, only to welcome you and wrap your very soul in an embrace of patience and prayer that tells you: ‘I’ve missed you.’
I sincerely hope you like this piece, whether you are from the Islamic faith community or not. This month was sent as a blessing and catalyst for companionship.
As the angel Jibreel told Muhammad during that very first revelation: “Iqra!”
Read!
Who knows, this article might inspire you in ways beyond the culinary realm.
Peace Be Upon You, Ramadan
I couldn’t start this edit without giving at least a little bit of background information regarding the month of Ramadan. There’s still a lot of confusion around Ramadan and Islam in general, and I truly believe that open communication is the path towards harmony across all (non) faiths. As Muslims, we believe that Ramadan is the month in which the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the final prophet of God, Muhammad (peace be upon him, from now on pbuh). The Quran, Muslims believe, is the verbatim word of God.
Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar one, the month of Ramadan moves back approximately 11 days every year. This means that Ramadan can be in spring for a few years, and then be in winter for another few years. During Ramadan, Muslims are required by God to fast from dawn to sunset.
Fasting, in this sense, must be understood as a holistic practice. Meaning that we don’t just fast with our stomachs, we also fast with our tongues from abstaining from ill speech. We fast with our eyes by lowering our gaze. With our ears, by remaining deaf to gossip. We fast with every body part so that we may remain in a state of constant God-consciousness, or dhikr in Arabic. As it were, we submit our entire selves to the will of God. This is the literal translation of Islam: submission through peace, salam.
Internal Metamorphosis
The point of Ramadan is to let it transform you. To break unhealthy habits and build new, better ones so that practices such as abstaining from ill speech and lowering our gaze can be practiced all year long - as they should be practiced all year long. There’s a special type of comfort to be found in the emptiness of our stomachs. Suddenly it’s easy to recognize the emptiness of everything else. How fleeting materialistic life is, and even how ‘empty’ boundless indulgence in food is.
A companion of the Prophet (pbuh), Miqdam bin Madikarib said that he heard the Prophet say the following:
“The son of Adam does not fill a vessel worse than his stomach.
It is enough for the son of Adam to eat a few mouthfuls to straighten his back.
But if he must (fill his stomach) then one third for his food,
One third for his drink,
And one third for his breath.” (Sunan Ibn Majah 3349)
At first glance, this might not be exactly what you want to read on a food blog BUT all this simply means that we should be modest with our food and food intake. In the same way that Muslims are required to be modest in dress, speech, materialism, and everything else.
God says in the Quran (it is the month of the Quran after all, so I almost feel obliged to share this verse):
“And eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allah) likes not al-musrifoon (those who waste by extravagance).” (Quran 7:31)
It’s Sunnah, Brother
One of the things that distinguish Islam from other faiths is that it isn’t merely based on belief. It’s a way of life, too. Because Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) to be the vessel through which God communicated the correct practice of Islamic spirituality, philosophy, conduct, and even health, Muslims try to emulate the Prophet (pbuh) as much as we can.
This is in order to worship God in the best way we can, as Muhammad (pbuh) was the best to worship. This is what Muslims call ‘following the sunnah.’ The sunnah is comprised of two things: prophetic speech and prophetic conduct/action/habit. Naturally, because a big part of Ramadan is how we handle food, Muslims have adopted many of the prophetic habits revolving around fasting. Such as how to break our fast at iftar and what to eat during the pre-dawn breakfast known as suhoor.
Now that you hopefully have a bit of a grasp on what Ramadan is, why Muslims fast, and the integrated philosophy behind this Islamic practice, we can actually move on to the real reason you’re here: the history of food and food traditions. This time, Ramadan edition.
Prophetic Foods
Muslims are required to look after their physical health as well as their spiritual health all year long. Because Muslims believe that all belongs to God and all will return to God, we believe that our bodies and physical merits are a gift from God that we should nourish and take care of to the best of our abilities. As such, outside of Ramadan but more so during, there is great emphasis on the use and preparation of nutritious dishes and foods.
As such, Muslims try to include what is called ‘prophetic foods’ as much as they can during their iftar and suhoor. Prophetic foods include cucumber, pomegranates, and watermelon (it honestly sucks that we’re currently spending Ramadan outside of watermelon season… nothing better than having watermelon juice run across the curve of your chin to quench your thirst), honey, beetroot, coconut water and… dates! A tropical stone fruit surrounded by edible flesh; a central piece on every iftar table in the houses of more than 2 billion Muslims, as the prophet Muhammad used to break his fast with a date. And therefore, the star of this edit.
Trusting the Sunnah
As stated before, Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) to be the vessel through which God communicated the correct practice of Islamic spirituality, philosophy, conduct, and even health. We believe that everything the Prophet (pbuh) did was divinely guided and/or inspired. Hence, we trust the sunnah completely.
So when it comes to breaking our fast with a date, we don’t always question why. But when we do (and it’s religiously highly encouraged to seek out knowledge), our understanding of the holism of our faith increases.
Dates are high in sugar, fiber, minerals, phytonutrients, and vitamin C. They also contain potassium, magnesium, iron, and a small amount of protein and fat. Making them easily digestible after a long day of fasting on an empty stomach and excellent for helping the body’s blood glucose level quickly return to normal during iftar. At suhoor, dates help the body feel full for a longer period of time.
Outside of Ramadan, dates have also been used for the Islamic tradition of tahneek: putting a small amount of something sweet in an infant’s mouth at birth. Only recently having been discovered to be an excellent way to fight neonatal hypoglycemia - dangerously low blood sugar in newborns that results in brain damage which affects one in 10 babies.
Fruit of the Moroccan Desert
When Islam came around, it never sought to break down cultures and build them up as one homogenous block. Islam has always encouraged differences among peoples and tribes.
In the Quran God says:
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Aware.” - (Quran 49:13)
As such, it is Islamically understood that there is no superiority in cultures. Only in deeds. Being Moroccan-Egyptian, it is easy to recognize how both cultures are wildly different but equally beautiful in their own existence. Following this logic, the use of prophetic foods has been subjected to cultural modification and use, too.
The cultivation of dates goes back at least 6000 years. And the date palm itself has been used and manipulated in a variety of ways in the Middle East and North Africa region. The date palm, which in Arabic mythology has been known as the ‘tree of life’ has “provided people with the appropriate materials to make a thread, mattresses, lumber, rope, and many other households and dietary uses.”
Because of its arid deserts, Morocco specifically has been a fantastic place to cultivate dates. Today, Morocco produces 100 varieties of dates with 45 of these varieties in the south of Morocco alone. It is in the Draa Valley specifically where the date palm thrives, upon which it produces the most beautiful and tasteful dates.
The Date: A Royal Treat
As said before, the types of dates are plenty. There is Halawi, Khadrawi, Mabroom and by far the most well-known and popular; the Medjool date, native to Morocco. “Larger, darker, and more caramel-like” in flavor than their other date-peers, with hints of honey and cinnamon, the Medjool date used to be reserved for royalty and their guests only. The palms, on which the Medjool dates grow were used and adopted as a sign of victory. Rightfully, the Medjool date is known as ‘the king of dates’ and ‘the diamond of fruits.’
In 1927, crisis struck the date palms, however. The majority of Medjool trees in Morocco succumbed to the disease. Out of fear of losing the ability to cultivate this precious date entirely, 11 of the remaining healthy date trees were sent to the U.S. to be replanted in California.
With Orientalism and the enchantment of the Middle East and Shehrazade’s 1001 Nights reaching its peak in the 20th century, California already had a long-standing tradition of transforming the sunny streets of Cali into an offshore Arabian desert “with camels, Bedouin tents, harems and of course Medjool dates.” The fact that the date palm was now growing in the Coachella Valley was a nice asset for the American orientalist.
Fill ‘em up with Almonds
During Ramadan, Moroccans have always upheld the tradition of filling them with something else. Be it walnuts (often given to guests arriving at a wedding to be eaten with a sip of milk), coconut (combining 2 of the prophetic foods 😉 ), or almonds. Of which the latter is the most popular practice.
Date Tajine
The versatility of dates, depending on their type and flavor, makes them an excellent addition to lamb or chicken tajine to reach a beautiful balance between sweet and savory in this traditional dish.
Silky and Sweet, Moroccan Soup in Ramadan
A statement dish during Ramadan in every Moroccan household is Harira. The Harira soup is supposed to be the food of farmers throughout the Arab world before the Hijra (the migration of the Prophet (pbuh) at the command of God from Mecca to Medina when persecution made his living circumstances in Mecca unbearable). Harira, which stems from the Arabic word hareer meaning ‘silk,’ is a thicker soup of tomato, lentils, chickpeas and vermicelli. On its own? delicious. When you throw some dates in there? An exquisite combination of sweet and savoury.
“There Has Come to You a Blessed Month…”
Honestly, the creativity is endless. And not just with dates. In spite of hunger and thirst, Muslims all over the globe bring forth the most amazing dishes, mezze and sweets - all without taste-testing. Out of the love and care that goes into each and every dish, with the remembrance of God and His final Prophet Muhammed (pbuh), comes forth a brilliant culinary artwork that brings not just families, but entire neighborhoods together.
I swear there is no month more beloved.
Even without water during the day 😉.