The sweetest taste after fasting is a tall glass of cool water.

This was the word from Imam Basim Muwwakkil of the Muslim Community Centre at Masjid Muhammad No. 1 on Cedar Avenue.

The Muslim community will mark the start of Ramadan this weekend at the first sighting of the full moon.

Ramadan this year is from August 22 to September 19.

The Royal Gazette lifestyles reporter Jessie Moniz recently met with Imam Muwwakkil and Muslim community member Kamal Best, to learn more about this religious observance.

"Ramadan is the time of year in which the Koran was revealed by the prophet Muhammad," said Imam Muwwakkil. "With the Koran came light and understanding of man's role in life.

"It says in the Koran that the Koran was revealed in the month of Ramadan so that you may understand what is right from what is wrong. This is the time of year when Muslims reconnect with their creator."

He likened it to topping up your cellular telephone.

"Over the year your connection to God gets weaker and weaker," he said. "Ramadan is a time for recharging our batteries, so that we can go for another year."

They reconnect by fasting from sun up to sun down during the period between two full moons.

During Ramadan, Muslims try to work on their bad habits.

Imam Muwwakkil converted to Islam as an adult in the 1970s. Kamal Best also came into it later in life.

"Becoming Muslim was a good experience for me in that it was something that the soul looked for," he said. "At that time I joined what was known as The Nation of Islam.

"They pushed things that would help the black man with God being the centre of it all.

"But it gradually changed. I was only there a year or so before the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, died in February, 1975, and his son, Warith Deen Muhammad, took over the leadership. He took us over into orthodox Sunni Islam."

He said the difference included things like fasting.

"At one time in the Nation of Islam we just fasted in the month of December," he said. "We are now part of the Muslims of the world and we fast according to traditions of the Prophet."

"People who follow this faith must fast if they are in good health. There are exemptions for the sick, pregnant and old.

"If you don't fast then you are required to feed someone in need," said Imam Muwwakkil.

He said children must start when they reach maturity, around the age of 12 or 13 years old.

"But we encourage them to try at an early age," he said. "And many of them enjoy that. They say 'I'm fasting today, I haven't had anything to eat'. In the beginning they might just do it for the morning."

Mr. Best said he had three children.

"Ramadan is something my children always look forward to," said Mr. Best. "It is much like Christmas would be for Christians.

"The children look forward to getting up early in the morning and having the early morning meal. We have a prayer. We go to work and come home. Then we break the fast together, after sunset.

"We break the fast, we say the evening prayer. Then we eat dinner and then get ready for the night prayer, which could be up to an hour long. Some pious people will pray late at night. That prayer would be called Taha Juud."

Imam Muwwakkil said after a fast it is always good to eat something natural.

"We try to get dates or fruit," he said. "We eat something natural, not cake.

"And after not drinking all day we drink a lot of water. I guarantee that water is the best thing you have tasted after a fast. Fasting makes you appreciate people who don't have food. It helps you identify with people who don't have money to buy the things they need."

Mr. Best said that during Ramadan Muslims try to be better people.

"We are always charitable, but more so during Ramadan," he said. "If you are friendly, you are more friendly. If you are helpful, you are more helpful."

Mr. Best teaches primary four at Northlands Primary School.

He said he only discusses religion with his students if they bring up the topic.

"I don't advance my faith on my students," he said. "If they discuss religion, we can discuss any kind of religion.

"I am open to that. When I was young children went to Sunday school. Nowadays parents don't take their kids to Sunday school, so kids have very little spirituality.

"I hope they don't ban prayer from schools. I think it is good for them."

Imam Muwwakkil is a Transport Control Department (TCD) examiner.

He said that he does use spiritual lessons in his daily life.

"Spirituality is supposed to work for you all your life," he said. "It is not like you are a muslim today, and then you are someoneelse with the boys in the street. It is suppose to change our lives."

He was appointed Imam in 1998.

"We (the Bermuda Muslim community) choose the one who has the best character to be Imam," said Mr. Best. "We usually don't choose the one who wants to be a leader."

Imam Muwwakkil said it was a big honour to be chosen as Imam, and a big responsibility, but he gladly accepted the position.

"He said Islam is a growing religion in Bermuda, but slowly growing.

"People aren't coming in in floods," he said, "but new individuals have accepted it over the years."

Ramadan ends with a big celebration called Eid.

"We have early morning prayer, a talk and then there are festivities," said Imam Muwwakkil. "It is like a big picnic.

"We have Muslims from all over the world so there are different foods at the celebration, but the predominant "exotic" foods including peas and rice, potato salad and other Bermudian staples."