Happy Ramadan / Lent 2026!

If you live in the UK, or another country that started fasting Ramadan today, you may not realise that today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the traditional 40 days of Christian fasting, Lent.

(Apparently the last time this happened was 1991, which is not as long ago as I thought it would be, probably because Easter moves around in a somewhat unpredictable pattern.)

Unfortunately there are very few Christians that fast today - at least, it seems that way in the UK. God says in the Qur’an “Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may gain God-consciousness”. Many Christians have forgotten that prescription, or replaced it with a weaker Lent sacrifice, like giving up tea or chocolate.

But this weakening of adherence to God’s law among Christians is only a continuation of that started by Paul of Tarsus, the founder of modern Christianity. I’ve been listening to the excellent series of podcasts by Dr Ali Ataie on Blogging Theology, and I’ve been astounded at what I’ve learnt, not just about early Christianity, but about what is considered to be the mainstream opinion among historians.

For example, I didn’t know that Jesus had a brother James, who was tasked by Jesus with leading the church after he left, and did so for thirty years. James was a Jewish Christian - like Jesus himself, he followed and advocated following Jewish law. This is even made clear in the New Testament itself, in Acts 21:20, where Paul visits James and is told by James and the elders, “You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the law. They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the gentiles to forsake Moses and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs.”

Paul then has to demonstrate his subservience to the law by making a sacrifice and shaving his head.

Yet most Christians today still follow the religion of Paul in worshiping Jesus, rather than following Jesus, a Jew and Rabbi. Jesus himself would most likely have considered Paul’s beliefs blasphemous.

Anyway, if you are a Christian of any variety and giving up something for Lent, I wish you all the blessings you may receive from this holy time.