THE JOURNAL #2 - Ramadan and the Marginalized

One of the central objectives of Ramadan is to prompt empathy for the impoverished. Does it?

In my main essay on this subject, I’m Observing Ramadan, I wrote a descriptive analysis of my personal experiences and reflections as a Westerner who stumbled across Ramadan, dusted it off, and gave it a spin. In that essay, I spent no time on what Muslims themselves think about Ramadan or what it is meant to do, and this was part of the point. As I emphasized in the essay, I am not a Muslim, and this fact is central to informing my experience of Ramadan.

However, when I forwarded this essay to a friend who is far more knowledgeable about Islam than I am, she pointed out that a central point of Ramadan is that it promotes charity for the poor by encouraging fasters empathize with those who fast against their will. She pointed out that those who cannot fast compensate for their fasting by donating food to the hungry, and she asked the question that will serve as the central thesis to this appendix:

Have you learned anything about empathizing with the poor during Ramadan?

Here I present my answer.