Imam Khalid Latif

Imam Khalid Latif is blogging his reflections during the month of Ramadan, featured daily on HuffPost Religion. For a complete record of his previous posts, click over to the Islamic Center at New York University or visit his author page, and to follow along with the rest of his reflections, sign up for an author e-mail alert above, visit his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter.

There seems to be a lot of conversation these days on Muslim athletes at this year's Olympics and the tough choice they face in fasting during Ramadan or not. Growing up, I played football and ran track since I was around 12 and the decision to fast while I was practicing or playing never really came up. This wasn't because I was particularly devout or committed to my faith per se. Mostly it was because I saw my sister fasting while she played basketball, so I just did what she did.

Aside from being quick, agile and having an amazing jump shot (she used to have a couple of three-point records for high school basketball in N.J.), my big sister Aliya has a lot of unique qualities that makes her someone that I have always looked up to and have learned a lot from. We have home videos of us playing together in the front yard of our house from when we were younger and my father would call us into the house, speaking to us in Urdu. My sister would respond, using the feminine case since she's a girl, "Main aa rahi hoon," meaning "I am coming," and I would be waddling behind her speaking in the same feminine case saying "Main aa rahi hoon," not knowing that I was talking as a girl would, but not really caring because I just wanted to be like her.

For those who don't know her, here is a sample of Aliya Unplugged

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, grew up under the care and attention of many different women, and I would argue that played a huge role in his being the person that he was. His father Abdullah passed away before he was born and his primary caregiver was his mother Aminah. Aminah says that during the birth of Muhammad, she felt no pain at all and it was an extremely light experience for her. This carries deep meaning to it, as Muhammad was meant to cause hardship to no one. As such, a process that is so strenuous that it can only be called labor brings no pain to his mother Amina, because he's not meant to cause people pain. Amina is one woman who raises him....to continue reading please click here