A Month Of Blessings: Sharing The Experience Of Ramadan With Your Teams
‘Captify Voices’ spotlights employees from across the business as they reflect on their experiences, educate and inspire action around Diversity and Inclusion, particularly around historical and religious holidays.
In this edition, Aisha Hassan, Captify’s Process Excellence and Enablement Lead, reflects on how Captify is participating in Ramadan and how people can learn about Ramadan by taking part in fasting.
Like all Muslims around the world, I always look forward to the holy month of Ramadan. It is a time dedicated for reflection on both myself and my faith, and brings us all much closer to Allah (having ‘Taqwa’). Similar to others, who observe the month of fasting, I always feel overcome with emotions during this time; going through the experience of fasting, thinking of others who are less fortunate than myself and feeling truly blessed for everything that I have—even more so after everything that is happening in the world.
What is Ramadan?
- One of the Five Pillars of Islam and the 9th month of the Islamic calendar
- Ramadan is the month in which the Holy Quran was revealed as a guide for humanity
- Muslims around the world fast for 29 or 30 days (depending on the sighting of the new moon)
- Fasting takes place between dawn to dusk, where a pre-dawn meal is eaten and then, at dusk, families will break their fasts together
- Not only do Muslims refrain from food and drink, but also smoking, sexual relations and any inappropriate behaviour
- Fasting is obligatory for all adult Muslims, however, those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, menstruating, unwell, taking medication or of old age, are exempt
- During this month, we give Zakat (obligatory charity) to those less fortunate than us
- You can also discover more about Ramadan here
How Captify is supporting Ramadan:
Since joining Captify, this will be the 11th Ramadan that I will be observing and the 29th in my life. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by considerate colleagues and friends, who have continuously supported me and so many others throughout the month of Ramadan each and every year.
To show support for those who are fasting during the month of Ramadan, and as a way to share the experience together, Captify welcomes all employees to join in and fast for a day every year. We’ve had over 20 Captifyers from across the globe who have participated in the past and a few of them have shared their experience:
- “The overall experience really makes you appreciate the food and drink we have readily available and the lifestyle we live in, not having to walk for miles just to get freshwater or through days without any food”
- “It really does make you appreciate food more, as well as how others may be feeling during fasting days”
- “I felt like I had a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day…Overall, I really enjoyed the day and the experience”
If you’ve never experienced fasting, why not give it a try? We’ve put together this handy guide for experiencing a day of Ramadan
The little things you can do to support colleagues or teams that are fasting:
- Be Mindful: of eating or drinking in front of a person who is fasting, especially on video calls
- Be flexible:
- with working hours—starting a little later in the day can really help those who are fasting
- with meetings—the afternoons can be more difficult to focus, so if possible, try to schedule meetings for mornings.
- Encourage breaks: away from the screen—short walks and breaks go a long way and will help foster greater concentration
- Check-in with your colleagues and teams—be sure to drop them a note during the day
Ramadan Mubarak from Captify!
