2008 Woodie Awards
Ramadan, Muslim month of worship, fasting, feasting
By Monte Ashqar
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Features
Originally published: 9/13/07 at 4:53 PM CSTLast update: 9/18/07 at 6:05 PM CST
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That means the lunar months can be 29 or 30 days long, and a lunar year is 9-10 days shorter than a solar year.
Ramadan begins when an adult Muslim reports seeing the birth of the moon on the 29th or 30th night of Shaaban, the preceding month to Ramadan, and it has to be seen individually in each region where Muslims reside.
The end of Ramadan is announced the same way on the 29th or 30th night.
When nobody reports seeing the crescent on the 29th night, then the next day would become the 30th day of that month.
Fasting means abstaining from food, water, and marital sexual relations with the spouse from sunrise to sunset every day for the whole month, and it is one of the five pillars of Islam.
The center's President Solomon Hamideh said that the order from Allah, which is Arabic for God, to Muslims to fast was explicitly mentioned in the Quran just like the prayers, hajj and alms giving which are the other principal pillars of Islam.
The Quran in Chapter 2, Sections 183 to 184 reads, "O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint.
"Fasting for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number should be made up from days later. For those who can do it with hardship, is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent. But he that will give more, of his own free will, it is better for him. And it is better for you that ye fast, if ye only knew."
For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of meditation and worship to glorify Allah, Hamideh said.
"It is the month in which Allah began sending down the Quran unto the prophet Muhammad," Hamideh said.
It is also a good occasion for people to get together when they break their fasting to eat after the sun goes down, he said.
"During Ramadan, each day a different sponsor makes breakfast at sunset, for the people who are fasting, at the mosque," Hamideh said. "You see all kinds of different people gathered up at sunset, and after they eat, they pray together in a very pleasant scene of solidarity."
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Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
samir
posted 9/16/07 @ 12:51 PM CST
Good to read a truthful and accurate picture of Islam and Muslims... I hope that many other publishers would understand as you do the difference between Islam the religion and Muslim habits & cultures. (Continued…)
TomT
posted 9/16/07 @ 2:41 PM CST
I loved reading this! Wonderful article!...and it promotes understanding. We are all on this planet together. What beauty and reverence there is with this culture and religion. (Continued…)
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