I have noticed that many non-Muslims assume that Muslims dread Ramadhan. Many believe that the idea of giving up food and water all day for thirty straight days is unbearable. Many probably think that most of us fast only "because we have to", and not out of a sincere desire for spiritual rectification and renewal.
So I decided to run a simple social experiment, and see how many Google results appear for the following strings: "I love Ramadan", and "I hate Ramadan".
Not surprisingly, the "I love Ramadan" crowd (approximately 900 results) outnumbered the "I hate Ramadan" crowd (approximately 90 results) by a fair margin. I was surprised, however, how few results were returned, seeing as how nearly every Muslim blog I've seen will have at least one post or one comment that discusses the joys of the blessed month. Alternately, "I love Islam" returns over 35,000 results, while only eight results appear for "I love Hajj".
Factoring in different spellings (Ramadhan versus Ramadan versus Ramzaan), the "love" crowd typically outnumbered the "hate" crowd by a 10-to-1 margin. Furthermore, many of the "I hate Ramadan" posts were prefixed with "Not that ...", as in "Not that I hate Ramadan, but ...", so even the "hate" results were not really negative.
So for all those naysayers, there you go: we sincerely love Ramadan. It is a joyous occasion for all, and we are all eagerly awaiting it's auspicious arrival. May we all take full advantage of it, insha-Allah.
This post does not seem complete without a "so ner", at the end.
ReplyDeleteBut well done on your detective work! Very cool idea, masha'Allah.
Hmm .. it IS surprising.
ReplyDeleteThe rocks-sucks test is a better benchmark though I think. "Ramadhan rocks" (2630) vs. "Ramadhan sucks" (6). Other spelling variants are similar.
It seriously entertains me that you did this research on google. Nonetheless, Ramadan Mubarak :)
ReplyDeleteiMuslim: This post may have been subconsciously inspired by this comic I saw recently, but I have done similar experiments in the past for other topics. It's an interesting way of getting the public's opinion on any subject.
ReplyDeleteHidayath: You're right; more people in the blog crowd would resort to the verbs "rocks" and "sucks" to describe their feelings about something. The difference there is very revealing!
Asmaa: I'm glad you found this entertaining; it sounds like you're in need of some entertainment these days. Ramadhan Mubarak to you too!
Nice experiment... I'm glad you proved those silly people wrong! :)
ReplyDeleteNauman: The good thing is that most people aren't that silly, and will accept our love of Ramadhan if we just tell them.
ReplyDeletethere are other words you could have searched for other than love and hate.
ReplyDelete"like", "dread", "forced to fast"
"love to fast"
etc, etc.
BTW, I really strongly dislike Ramadan. It interrupts schedules. I am terrible at fasting. And it is so very long!
ReplyDelete