There is one person who has kept a fast in space and it was Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News – 6th May, 2019) Ramzan, the holy month for the Muslim community, has begun in many parts of the workd.
Muslims across the world observe fast from pre-dawn to dusk during the ninth month of Lunar Islamic Calender, Ramzan ul Mubarak.
However, there is one person who has even kept a fast in space and it was Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
In 1985, Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman joined Space Shuttle Discovery during a mission in Ramadan.
Prince Salman was the first Arab and Muslim to travel into space in 1985, helping to deploy a satellite for the Arab Satellite Communications Organisation with NASA.
The prince witnessed the birth of the new moon from space and based on a ruling by religious leaders, would fast according to his last location on Earth, which in his case was the US state of Florida.
Speaking about his experience of fasting in space in an old interview, Prince Sultan the experience of fasting in the fathomless space is an unforgettable experience.
He said that he had completed a full recitation of the Holy Qur’an in six days of his unforgettable space journey. The prince had devoted part of his allocated sleeping time for the recitation.
“During the holy month of Ramadan which fell in summer that year, I underwent the special training for the voyage at the Space Center in Houston. I endured severe heat and thirst during the training days there when the night did not exceed six hours. The journey was originally scheduled to start on 24th of Ramadan but was postponed till 29th of Ramadan,” said Prince Sultan while talking to Arab news.
The prince was fasting after taking Sehri and praying the dawn prayer before he left for his space journey.
Prince Sultan remembers how he asked a religious scholar about the regulations of fasting while on the space voyage.
“The religious scholar told me that I could break the fast on the basis of the timing of the place on earth from where I started the fasting,” he said. “We had set out from Florida.”
The prince ascertained the time of the sunset in order to break the fast of the day. He also heard on the radio that the next day was Eid in Saudi Arabia.
Prince Sultan also noted that that he could not see the new moon on that day. But on the second day, he could see the new moon and informed the Saudi scientific team under Abdullah Al-Dabbagh, present president of the Maaden Company, that he could see the new moon on the second.
After careful investigation the authorities confirmed that one day of Ramadan was missed and was to be compensated.
The prince said that he observed the obligatory prayers in the space journey on basis of the views of Bin Baz and Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdom’s grand mufti. He had performed the ablutions using moistened napkins because of the lack of gravity in space.
