Ramadan in Space

The formal disciplines of Islam are strict, and not even in Space are they to be ignored. Malaysia's first astronaut is now being chosen, and will blast off into space next month to the International Space Station,  Authorities have issued instructions on prayer, purification and even 'burial' out there. It will be the first time a Muslim has been in orbit during Ramadan.
     Prayer need only be 5 times a day (at the speed the station circles the earth, you could argue for 80: many sunrises and sunsets..). The booklet covers Islamic washing rituals  but if water is not available the astronaut can symbolically "sweep holy dust" onto the face and hands "even if there is no dust". There are also suggestions on how to pray in a zero-gravity environment where traditional positions may be impossible. 

Comments

[jim, sydney]

Yet one more example of the weird and irrational world of religious ritual.
Unfortunately an unbelievable amount of human time and effort has been spent over millennia on religious practices. Various men over the ages have decided themselves that God had spoken to them and given them a special divine insight, which they have pushed onto others by force of personality and persuasion, by coercion, or by physical force or blackmail, dictating what people should think, how to pray, where to pray, how to dress, how to eat, what to eat and when, whom to socialise with, whom to marry, how to have sex, and untold other codes for how to live and behave. All of these have been totally man inspired, man-made edicts.
Of course, between the major religions there is great disparity on how supposedly the same God wants people to live. There is not one chance in a trillion that He would want so many differences, so by inference any God couldn't possibly care about any trivial part of religious practice, so all dress, food, and other social rules of living are totally irrelevant. Jews, Christians, Muslims and others have wasted and continue to waste untold effort on dogmas that only foster elitist, isolationist behaviour, encourage ethnic divides, religious enclaves and xenophobia, and discourage assimilation of races, nations and groups.

[John Smith]

A great example of the existing spirituality in the Muslim world even though the message was delivered so many years ago.
Unfortunately, ignorant people fail to recognize the beauty of it all and choose to live a life of atheism and ignorance and continue to provoke the most peaceful religion.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims do have the same God and the same message was delivered, but over time, humans have interpreted things differently so that's why there are differences amongst the religions. There were different prophets sent at different times to show humans the right way to live and the Muslims' prophet was the last one of them!

[the right one]

Dear John,
I'm THE prophet. The others you call prophets were unfortunately wrong in their conclusions, but I forgive them.
Life is all there is. Do the best you can.
(PS: all violence should be renounced, and any prophet saying otherwise was wrong).

[John Smith]

Dear "The Right One",
Please don't be one of the ignorant people. I know its hard to understand for a non-believer, but the message OF GOD was delivered to the prophets. This was done because God wanted humans to "Do the best" they can by separating right from wrong. The extremism and terrorism is human misinterpretations and not the message of the prophets.
(PS: violence WAS renounced by the prophets and peaceful measures were taken whenever possible).