For Muaaz Mahmud and his fellow members of the Muslim Student Association, the blisteringly long walks between classes aren’t greeted by a generous drink of water or a satisfying bite into their favorite food.

Instead, they are greeted with a hunger in their bellies. A hunger affording them deeper spirituality and offering empathy for the less-fortunate of the world.

They are celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a special 30-day period where Muslims are required to abstain from food, drink, sex and anything that is deemed sinful from sunrise to sunset.

Mahmud, petroleum engineering, energy management and finance senior, said its purpose is to remind Muslims of their connection to Allah and their duty to the impoverished.

“Ramadan is a time when we focus on our spirituality,” Mahmud said. “But, we also focus outward.”

Ramadan occurs every year, but the dates change because the Islamic calendar doesn’t coincide with the Gregorian calender used in the United States. Mahmud said that Muslims use the new moon to determine the beginning of Ramadan, but there is always a debate about the exact start. This year it started around Aug. 11, and it will end this Friday if the new moon permits.

For Oklahoma’s calendar, this means those participating in Ramadan must endure intense heat without quenching their thirst, from sunrise to sunset.

That doesn’t deter these students. Fasting during Ramadan is a spiritual obligation, and Mahmud and the other members of MSA embrace it.

“It’s a challenge whenever it starts,” said Omar Alamoudi, a geophysics junior. “It’s a different routine where you don’t eat that much or drink that much.”

Alamoudi also said that students usually adjust their study schedules to cope with the lack of energy provided by the fasting, but that doesn’t come without a challenge either.

“Some can’t study during the day because there is no energy,” Alamoudi said. “It takes a lot of effort to reschedule yourself and get adjusted.”

However, once the students make it through the day, they break the fast after sunset. Some students head to Norman’s local Masjid (mosque) and attend the Maghrib (sunset) prayer. Friends and families gather there, pray and then break the fast as a community.

For the Islamic culture, charity and community are paramount. Alamoudi emphasized this with an anecdote about his native Saudi Arabia.

“Instead of cooking a certain amount for only the house … they will cook double the amount to feed others,” Mahmud said.

The association is taking these themes of humility and charity, and applying them to Norman and Oklahoma City.

Sarah Sullivan, dental hygiene senior and Islam convert, said she helps out the less-fortunate — even when she fasts.

“We’ve gone to Jesus House and City Rescue Mission and we volunteer; we help serve food,” Sullivan said. “While we are fasting throughout the day, we are serving those who are poverty stricken.”

MSA is giving OU students an opportunity to do the same with the ThinkFast Challenge.

“Since we are fasting in the month of Ramadan as Muslims, we invite the whole campus, Muslim and non-Muslim, to fast for a day during the month of Ramadan,” said Sana Hanif, an elementary education senior and MSA president. “See what it is like, and donate your lunch money to [the Oklahoma City Food Bank].”

By doing this, students are given an opportunity to gain the same empathy Muslims are awarded during Ramadan and at the same time help the less fortunate, she said.

The ThinkFast Challenge will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Molly Shi Ballroom in Oklahoma Memorial Union. Ramadan may end soon, but for the MSA, its teachings will live on.

“You do it for a month, but you are supposed to do it for the other eleven months too,” Anwar said.