Aziza's First Fast

Aziza's First Fast is an Islamic audiobook for young children about a girl in the United States who decides to keep her first Ramadan fast, and finds out how hard, and how rewarding, a whole day of fasting can be.

Aziza and her father climb to the roof of their apartment building to look for the new moon. When she sees it, she tells him she will fast tomorrow. He thinks she is too young, but lets her try. At suhoor she is too sleepy to eat much, and at first fasting seems easy. Then her tummy growls in maths, and at home she eats a red jelly bean before she remembers. Her mother tells her that eating by mistake does not break the fast, as long as she stops when she remembers.

At school, Tony's mother brings a birthday cake. The whole class says they will not tell, but Aziza will not eat it, so the teacher wraps her a piece to take home. By the afternoon she is so tired, hungry and thirsty that she wants to give up, and her mother helps her to keep going until Maghrib. They break the fast with a dua and a date, then the cake, and her mother explains that fasting helps us feel grateful for what Allah has given us, because some people cannot eat when they want to.

Aziza fasts four days that Ramadan, and the story ends with the moon of Eid al-Fitr and a poem thanking Allah for His gifts. It takes about 13 minutes.

• Sahih al-Bukhari 1933: Whoever forgets that they are fasting and eats or drinks should complete their fast, for it is Allah who fed them and gave them drink.