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Ramadan commemorates the month when the Quran's first verses were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

It's marked by recitation of the Quran, prayer, and fasting from sun up to sun down.

The Ramadan fast is a spiritual discipline of commitment and reflection,

but it's also meant to align Muslims with the larger experience of need and hunger in the world.

This year, of course, Muslims are experiencing a Ramadan like no other.

The month is usually a period of both intimacy and great parties,

waking before the sun rises for breakfast, prayers with one's family,

ending or breaking the fast after nightfall in celebration with friends and strangers.

Now Muslims are improvising, as in many places Ramadan has been forced inside and online.

This show grew out of an invitation to Muslim listeners leading up to Ramadan in 2009.

We ask them to reflect with us on what it means to be part of what is often referred to in the abstract as the Muslim world.

We received responses from all over the world, and were especially struck by the vivid stories about Ramadan itself

that nearly everyone had to tell across a remarkable spectrum of life and spiritual sensibility.

First of all, it teaches you that you can do so much more than you think you can.

And at the end of the day, when you take that first sip of water, it is the sweetest thing in the world.

And also how it makes you compassionate because when you are hungry,

you understand the experience of those people who are hungry every day of their lives.

Ramadan is not just predicated upon eating or not eating or drinking or not drinking.

It's a state of mind and it's an attempt to achieve God consciousness that carries on throughout the day.

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