People sit exams during ramadan, I don't know how

In Germany, Muslim students had their exams excused this week, when everyone else wrote them. They can take them next week

I wonder why, Muslims only make up 5% of Germany's population, fiscally this wouldn't make much sense given that they would have to make a second exam paper & provide more labour

For some people, not everything is reduced to being as cost effective as possible.

Come to think of it, it was quite nice how they accommodated Muslims; however, they could have just postponed the exams.

Terrible idea and precedent IMHO.

Why?

the German's regain some reputation for hospitality.

You get used to it

I had 12 years of pre-college education, 4 for university, 2 for Masters and 2 years of classes in my PhD ( I am candidate now) and I think I had exams while I was fasting in each year and it wasn't a big deal. I rarely even see a Muslim student break fast for exams. And I think people saying they request accommodation this week, that's usually because of Eid and the couple of nights before that we believe it is the night that quran was revealed to the prophet Mohamed, so people want to pray more at night (it is a probability not specific night from 21,23,25,27 and 29 of Ramadan)

How does your focus evolve or progress while fasting? Any relevant difference between the first days and the last days?

Simply, when you eat 3 meals a day, your body and mind is way less performant than what it could be in a good portion the day. So having all daytime fully productive helps. I personally don’t feel any desire to eat or drink after 1st day.

People play professional sports while fasting during Ramadan. I have no idea how they do it but having access to nutritionists probably helps.

Religious fasts are not held for health reasons :)

Some of them are still for reasons within the range of "health".

That's usually the first question that pops up when explaining it to non-Muslims haha but yes, really, no water either.

From sunrise to sunset.

Today, sunrise was about 6:30am and sunset will be about 7:30pm. That's only 11 hours with no food or water.

That's 13 hours.

Yeah, I subtracted instead of added for some reason. Good catch.

Fun fact: The start and end of Ramadan shifts by something like two weeks each year. It was from 22 March to 20 April this year and 1 April to 1 May last year. So muslims in the northern hemisphere who are growing up or are very old now have it a bit easier since each year it's going more into Spring/Winter. I remember growing up in Europe we'd have one or two muslim kids in our class and I was horrified because they weren't allowed to drink any water on the hottest summer days.

hottest and longest.

Not unhealthy, unless you don't drink enough before dawn

It also depends on the level of activity, as with any other thing. Personally I've been well-hydrated throughout the days, going to the loo quite often.

I'm not a muslim, but I've done ramadan for my own edification and really it seems fine. Ramadan isn't prescribed for anyone who's on prescriptions or unhealthy. The worlds top soccer players fast and are still competitive. On top of that, a large part of the middle east was conquered while the soldiers were fasting.

The human body is quite capable of more than we give it.

I think society has gotten to a point that if we don't have 3 "well balanced meals" daily, drink a gallon of water a day, you're living unhealthy and bad.

But people don't realize that fasting is important to your body... We store fat to use during that time... That's the whole point of storing fat. Energy and that while you don't have it.

12 hours a day is absolute cake-walk for our bodies.

Yeah, fasting is great for letting our bodies recalibrate. 12 hours is nothing. It's parroted a lot but a large UK gentleman went an entire year on multivitamins, water, and a handful of other minerals to lose weight with no damage to his body. He was under doctor supervision so self-managed fasting is probably between 12 hours and 365 days.

To be fully hydrated you need to drink water for 24 hours in advance. If you drink a ton of water before sunrise and after sunset, every day, you can still be properly hydrated. Not ideal of course, but not necessarily unhealthy.

Within 5 days I'm fully adjusted but there are some symptoms of dehydration before that.

Leads me to doubt the conventional wisdom these days of "drink gallons of water per day to have a chance of being healthy"

As long as you are properly hydrated before it's really not that bad.

Even this Ramadan, when I went to pee later in the day, the color wasn't dark implying I wasn't that dehydrated.

It’s fine bro! Like 2 billion people including me does it every single year. Nothing happens. You just drink at night more. We’re perfectly healthy.

Good for you. But please don't generalize it for every one. Lack of water intake does multiply the hardship many folds. Especially now, when Ramzan(or Ramadan) falling in summer in the northern hemisphere.

Know people who have had strokes or break the fast due to extreme hardship. Domestic helps who are Muslims, or people doing physical labor, simply can't observe it. Its one of the hardest fasts there is, and restraint from drinking water is the main reason.

I know, but if it poses a real and serious health risk you are religiously prohibited from fasting. Islam prioritizes health in this situation. So it’s not that much of a concern. In my country, physical laborers also fast and I didn’t heard one breaking fast due to hardship.