Spiritual goal

The Fifa World Cup 2014 has reached a very interesting phase now. I have been thrilled to watch a number of matches, many of them were too intense to watch. Since I come from India, which is crazy about cricket, I am not in favour of any particular team participating in this contest. Instead, I love the game and appreciate each and every team for their amazing performance.

But since the Holy Month of Ramadan has begun, I kept wondering about the Muslim players participating in it. In fact, everyone in my surrounding was curious to know whether the players will be fasting or they will skip it. For the first time in about three decades, the FIFA World Cup has coincided with Ramadan. It has put those players in a difficult spot.

Many athletes participating in the Olympics 2012 had also faced such a hard situation. But they were allowed to eat during Ramadan so that they make no mistakes while competing for glory. They were allowed to make up  for those fasts later.

Germany’s Mesut Ozil, Barcary Sagna of France and many other players have stated that they will not be fasting during matches. I can understand because if they stay away from food and drinks from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, they might feel weak and their performance might be affected.

But I was surprised when I came to know that the Muslim players of a few teams like Algeria and Nigeria had decided to continue fasting irrespective of their matches. Although now Algeria and Nigeria are out, they were the true heroes for me.

They maintained their religious duty as well as their national duty.

(Published in The Gulf Today on July 5, 2014)