There is a version of Ramadan that lives in your memory from back home. The version where the smell of iftar reaches you before the food does. Where the whole house shifts its rhythm without anyone needing to say a word. Where the street outside gets quieter just before Maghrib, like the city itself is holding its breath. Where
everyone around you is fasting too, so the hunger feels shared, almost easy.
Then there is the version you discover when you move abroad for your studies. This one is different. Not worse. Just different in ways nobody fully prepares you for.
I am a Master's student at King's College London, and Ramadan this year was my first one as an international student. Thirty days of fasting while simultaneously managing deadlines, commuting across the city, sitting through three-hour seminars on an empty stomach, and trying to explain to a well-meaning flatmate why I am eating at 3am with complete calm and intention.
This is that story, and it is also a letter to every international student walking into their first Ramadan abroad.
The first Suhoor alone hits differently
Back home, suhoor, the pre-dawn meal before the fast begins, is rarely a solo affair. Someone is always up. There is always the sound of a kitchen being used, the low murmur of a TV, the particular warmth of a house that has reorganised itself around something sacred.
In student halls, your first suhoor alone is a quiet shock. It is 3:30 AM. The building is completely silent. You are reheating yesterday's rice in a shared kitchen under fluorescent light, and the contrast between this and what you are used to is so sharp it almost makes you laugh.
But here is what I want you to know: you get used to it faster than you think. And then something shifts. Those early morning hours become yours in a way they never were before. Nobody needs anything from you at 3:30 AM in a London student hall. The city is asleep. The silence that felt strange in the first week becomes, by the
second week, something close to sacred. Some of my most focused thinking happened in those quiet pre-dawn hours, bowl of oats in hand, the whole day still unmade in front of me.
Fasting through a full academic day
Nobody tells you that a nine-hour fast hits differently when you have back-to-back lectures, a lab session, and a group project meeting sandwiched in between.
The afternoons are the hardest part. Not the mornings, which are buoyed by the freshness of having just eaten. The mid-afternoon stretch, somewhere around 3 PM, when the last of the suhoor energy runs out and iftar still feels far away. That is when you learn what focus really means. You sit in a seminar, genuinely hungry, genuinely
tired in some cases from praying through the night, and you take notes anyway. You contribute to discussions anyway. You meet your deadlines anyway.
Research shows that many high-achieving students actually maintain or improve their academic performance during Ramadan, possibly because they are compensating through increased effort and time management.
I will be honest: some days I sat in the library running on very little, and I got more done than I ever did on a full stomach in September.
There is a particular kind of clarity that fasting produces once your body adjusts. It is not magic and it is not for everyone, but for many students, Ramadan becomes unexpectedly productive once the first two weeks pass.
The practical tip here is simple: front-load your hardest work. Schedule demanding tasks for the morning when your energy is highest. Save administrative tasks, emails, and lighter reading for the afternoon slump. Your body will thank you.
Finding your Ramadan community in London
London is enormous, and in its enormity it hides some extraordinary pockets of community. One of the first things I would tell any international student approaching Ramadan in this city is to find your people early.
This does not just mean other Muslim students, though your university's Islamic Society is genuinely worth joining if you have not already. It means finding the spots in your area where Ramadan is visible. East London, especially places like Whitechapel, Ilford, and Stratford, transforms during this month. Restaurants offer iftar deals, Mosques organise communal iftars that are open to all, the streets carry a particular energy in the hour before sunset that reminds you, sharply and warmly, that you are not doing this alone.
Many universities in London, including King's, have prayer spaces, Ramadan events, and communities that organise shared iftars throughout the month. Use them. Turn up even when you are tired. The communal iftar experience, even with people you barely know yet, restores something that fasting alone cannot.
Universities increasingly offer specific support during Ramadan, from extending library and prayer room hours to organising subsidised halal meals. Check what your institution provides and take full advantage.
The Iftar moment: rewiring where home feels like
Back home, iftar is a specific production. A specific table, specific dishes, the exact sound of the Adhan from a mosque you have heard your whole life.
Abroad, you rebuild it. And the rebuilding is one of the most unexpectedly moving parts of the experience.
Some evenings it is a group of flat-mates from four different countries passing dates around a common room table, none of them Muslim but all of them showing up because they wanted to. Some evenings it is a solo bowl of soup and a WhatsApp call home, breaking fast with your family's faces on a phone screen. Some evenings it is a communal iftar at a mosque where you walk in not knowing a single person and leave having exchanged numbers with three.
None of these are lesser versions of iftar. They are all real. What I came to understand during this Ramadan is that the meaning of the moment is not stored in the location. It is stored in the intention. And your intention travels with you wherever you go.
The spiritual side nobody talks about enough
Ramadan is often discussed through the lens of fasting, food, and community. But the spiritual dimension, the nightly Taraweeh prayers, the increased Quran recitation, the internal quieting that the month asks of you, deserves more than a footnote.
For international students, this side of Ramadan can actually deepen during the first year abroad. When the familiar external scaffolding falls away, the internal practice becomes something you hold more consciously. You are not fasting because the whole street is fasting.
You are fasting because you chose to, thousands of miles from home, in a city that largely does not notice. That choice means something different when it is made without the reinforcement of familiarity around it.
Find a mosque for Taraweeh if you can, even occasionally. London offers extensive Taraweeh facilities across North, East, West, and South London, with many mosques providing accessible times and even crèche facilities during prayer times. The experience of praying in a London mosque during Ramadan, packed with people from
every country imaginable, is one of the most quietly profound things this city has to offer.
A few words of advice, from one international student to another
This is the part I wish someone had handed me before my first Ramadan abroad. Consider it a letter from someone one Ramadan ahead of you.
Tell your university
Most UK universities have academic welfare processes and extenuating circumstances provisions. You are not asking for special treatment. You are providing context. Many universities now have explicit Ramadan guidance, with staff trained to offer reasonable accommodations and adjustments for exams and assignments.
Professors and supervisors are generally more accommodating than you expect if you communicate early. One common misconception among educators is that you need them to stop eating in front of you, which is simply not true. Just brief them on what support helps you focus.
Meal prep on weekends
Sunday becomes the most important day of your week. Cook in batches. Stock your fridge. Having a proper suhoor and iftar ready without having to think about it removes a huge daily mental load.
Focus on nutrient-dense foods that sustain you through the fast. Good nutritional practices during Ramadan include protein-rich meals at suhoor, plenty of water between iftar and suhoor, and avoiding salty or fried foods that increase thirst.
Protect your sleep
The sleep disruption of Ramadan is real and well-documented. A short nap after Dhuhr prayer, if your schedule allows, genuinely helps. Do not sacrifice sleep for scrolling. Your focus the next day depends on it. Some students find that a later suhoor time (9 AM or later) correlates with better academic adaptation during the month.
Be honest with non-Muslim friends
You do not have to perform wellness when you are tired. Most people, when they understand what the month involves, shift naturally to being considerate. Give them the chance to do that.
Creating inclusive spaces for all students during Ramadan matters enormously.
Let yourself feel the distance
There will be moments in Ramadan when the homesickness is specific and sharp. The smell of a particular dish you cannot recreate. The sound of a familiar Adhan you cannot hear. Let yourself feel it. It is not a sign that you made the wrong choice by coming here. It is just love for where you come from, and that is worth feeling.
Go all in on Eid
After thirty days of doing Ramadan in a new city, you have earned a full celebration. Plan it in advance, gather your people, dress up, explore London, and let yourself be joyful without reservation.
What Ramadan away from home leaves behind
By the time the month ends and Eid arrives, something has changed that is hard to articulate immediately. You fasted in a city that did not fast with you. You prayed when nobody around you was praying.
You built community from scratch and found that it held. That is not nothing. That is actually everything.
Ramadan as an international student strips the month down to its essentials and shows you exactly what you are capable of carrying on your own. It also shows you how quickly strangers become community when you reach toward them. London, for all its size and indifference, has extraordinary warmth tucked inside it if you know where to look and are willing to look.
Institutional support matters enormously during Ramadan. Universities that acknowledge Ramadan, offer flexible policies, and create welcoming spaces for Muslim students measurably improve outcomes and belonging. At the same time, your own agency and community-building matters just as much.
Ramadan Mubarak to every international student navigating this month abroad. You are doing something harder than it looks, and you are doing it with more grace than you give yourself credit for
