With the soccer season around the corner for the rest of the world (it begins early in the year for the Major League Soccer), many professional players are faced with the question of whether or not they should fast during Ramadan, which begins in two weeks.
Source: European Muslim Soccer Players Facebook Group
The question came to light today as German football tackled the question head on. Germany’s Central Council of Muslims and German football officials came to an agreement that Muslim footballers are allowed to “break their fast” during Ramadan and the football season– they are given permission not to fast.
The issue became markedly significant when FSV Frankfurt, a second division club, gave formal warnings to three of its players for fasting. The players contracts include clauses which prohibit fasting without explicit permission.
The ruling seems controversial given that an integral part of the holy month is to fast. However, the German Muslim organization sought advice from Al-Azhar in Egypt, one of the leading Islamic theological institutions.
Al-Azhar ruled that a player is to honor a contract that is his only source of income, and if fasting affects his performance, then the player can break his fast.
Previous Al-Azhar rulings have declared the 9/11 attackers and suicide bombers as heretics, and have encouraged interactions with non-Muslims.
“The Muslim professional can make good the fasting days in times when there are no matches, and so continue to pay God and the holy month of Ramadan honor and respect,” Aiman Mazyek, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims, said in a statement.
He noted that “keeping the body healthy plays a leading role in Islam.”
There have been players here in the U.S. who have fasted while performing at the highest level. The premier example is former Houston Rockets star and NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwan maintained that he performed his best while fasting, and even did so during NBA playoff games.
Olajuwon was not, however, subject to contractual obligations regulating his fasting, and might be one of the few athletes who have enjoyed such a degree of freedom.
Does the ruling in Germany place contracts above Islam? Or does it provide further evidence regarding the versatility and accommodating nature of the religion?
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I don’t like this ruling. I see it as Al Azhar and any Muslim athletes who listen to this ruling as selling out. Rather than upholding their duties to Islam and fighting the silly contracts that prohibit fasting, they are essentially just stretching the rules of Islam in order to fit in. It indeed is a practical interpretation of the rules regarding fasting, but it is a ruling that can also be abused when applied to more and more professions. If we keep slowly stretching the rules of Islam, where will we draw the lines? What would be the next “practical” ruling? You don’t have to pray at work if your boss prohibits it?
I agree with MU, for the most part. At first I thought that this school was selling out; but although they do seem to have a valid point, I can see people not fasting for sports practices, then for other things, and just keep “stretching” the exception, as MU put it.
Also, the last line: “Does the ruling in Germany place contracts above Islam? Or does it provide further evidence regarding the versatility and accommodating nature of the religion?” can be fixed. The second question is basically suggesting a point of view (that Islam is flexible and allows for such actions as being able to break one’s fast under certain circumstances), but it does not oppose the first question. I don’t like that syntax.
I find this opinion, interesting. Women are not allowed to fast during certain times of the month, but are required to make up for those lost days.
It is also not required to fast when sick.
In this case men can try to fast and if performance is insufficient they can then break the fast. I think it makes more sense to not fast at all and make up for it later. Breaking the fast for contractual and performance reasons seems very strange… however if health is in jeopardy due to your regular course of work I can understand.
I think our contract with God is most important. No amount of money can buy a ticket to paradise, however it always boils down to intent.
Fasting is not intended to be a hardship on anyone; however it is emphasized thorough out the Quran that it has innumerable benefits for us that we do not know of. With that said, intent is key and I believe that it should not be decided for anyone that they cannot fast due to the potential physical hardship of their profession. It is a personal decision just like our individual relationship with God.
assalammualaikum.
I agreed with u all. no money can buy the ticket to paradise of Allah. if they regrated to sign your contract let it be. so many team in europe wan u to play with them. let see NBA player ( hakeem ) played to houston. how this guy can play very well in fasting month. I think basketball more fit and streght compare than football. the importan is Iman. your faith to ALLAH.