Azhak Hussam is positioning himself to be something like the Willy Wonka of Muslims. The Garden Grove cosmetics company owner (with a background in pharmacy, according to this article in Anaheim-based, InFocus, a Muslim newspaper) has invented what he calls, the Ramadan Fasting Tablet, which, if it works, will be for Muslims what Willy Wonka's three-course stick of gum was for a voracious Violet Beauregarde.
The concept is so modern and of its time, it hurts: a chewy, “Belgian” chocolaty “tablet” enriched with vitamins and herbs (Argentine yerba mate, among them) will help Muslims the world over feel like they're not fasting when they're, um, fasting.
Hussam says he was inspired by his grandma — too old and too fragile to fast, the poor viejita couldn't participate in the fasting rituals of Ramadan and it broke her her heart. Ever the loving grandson, Hussam took his skills and his connections to the lab, and to China (to get the Chinese herb part of the mix down), and created his Ramadan tablets, which he says will boost fasters' energy levels, provide them with the day's necessary nutrients, make them feel less thirsty and hungry and (as a bonus?) can also be used for “dieting.” That's the suspicious part.
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Although there have been the obvious objections to the little Ramadan
pill (why fast if you're not going to feel the fast?), Hussam insists
his tablets are intended not as a fast substitute, but as a way to help
replace some of the lost energy in the busy lives of modern Muslims.
He's promised to donate $1 of every bottle sold to the Muslim charity
of the buyer's choice, so we'll buy Hussam's good (money-making) intentions for now.
No mention of whether or not the chocolaty tablets
have side effects, but if you spot any inflated, Belgian
chocolate-colored worshipers being wheeled out of their mosques this
Ramadan (which begins in late August), you'll know who the culprit is.
