Muslims prepared for the fasting month

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): All worldly aspects of life will be temporarily renounced by many among the one billion Muslims in the world once the new moon is sighted on the first day of the Holy month of Ramadhan.

From Bangladesh to Bosnia, France to Fiji, Muslims will try to tuneup their spiritual life in the hope of becoming better human beings. For it is believed that in the special month of Ramadhan the gates of Paradise are wide open and those of hell are tightly shut, and the devil chained.

During the entire month, starting on Monday Muslims around the globe will atone for past sins, try to control passions and identify with the poor by not eating or drinking, praying continuously and reciting from the Koran from sunrise to sunset. Fasting is in fact as old as the human race. All the major religions from Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism to Islam expect their followers to fast in one way or the other. The most common motive being self control over the body with its endless appetites and to seek spiritual solace by concentrating on God and prayer.

The Islamic act of fasting is modeled on Yom Kippur or the Jewish day of atonement and was initially held on Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar. Later it was changed to Ramadhan, the ninth month in memory of the first revelation of the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad in a cave on Mount Hira, near Mecca in the year AD 610.

The night of power, is said to be the holiest of all nights in Ramadhan when it is believed that the first verses of the Koran were brought directly from God by angel Gabriel, to Muhammad. According to the Koran this night is better than a thousand nights and elders insist that any wish asked by mortals is granted. My mother always thought it a waste of opportunity to sleep on this special night as angels are said to shower special blessings and peace upon all those who remain awake, and in prayer.

Childhood memories evoke images of my mother refusing to rest on this 27th night of the Holy month when her room would flicker with the flames of countless candles and was engulfed in the aroma of burning incense sticks. She would be seated on the floor, her head covered, with a beatific countenance, continuing to read from the Koran and pausing to stretch her legs only after suhur, the first meal before sunrise followed by the fajr prayer at dawn. Throughout Ramadhan children are told stories about the good and bad in life and fantastic images of a perfect place called paradise, where only good people are allowed, are shared.

Although the birthplace of both Hinduism and Buddhism, India is also home to one of the world's oldest Jewish communities and to more than 120 million Muslims, making them the largest minority community in the world. Here Muslims fast for the same reason as Muslims anywhere else in the world trying to conquer excessive urges, to feel compassion for those less fortunate than themselves and in unusual gestures of generosity and forgiveness people spend more time with each other than they do during other times of the year.

Syed Shabaudiin Ahmed from Hyderabad, India recalls sirens ringing throughout the city to signal the start of the Holy month and sirens ringing again to wake-up the faithful for the first meal of the day before sunrise. In India it is not unusual for non-Muslims to also join in the fasting, and the feasting that follows later.

In neighboring Pakistan the marketplace wears a haunted look during the day time and life returns to the streets a few hours before iftar, just when the sun is about to set and Muslims prepare to break their fast.

Then restaurants do brisk business as people first pray and then sit around until the early hours of the morning, eating and talking to friends.

The fast is usually ended by sipping a blood-red drink made from sugar and crushed rose petals as the family gathers together at a dastarkhan or a table laden with delicacies.

According to Asad Alam Siam from the Bangladesh embassy, he is able to observe the solemn month of fasting in Jakarta exactly in the same way he does at home. Although he does miss the warmth and affection brought into the family by more relatives and friends.

Ezzat Saad, the Egyptian ambassador, too, fasts in Jakarta as he would back home.

"Being in Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, I feel most at home," he says, adding that perhaps what he does miss is the voice of the elmesaharati, or the dawn awakener and the mouth watering qatayef and qonafa, special sweets eaten at iftar, the evening meal during Ramadhan. Meal times, especially iftar, are a big social event among all Muslims.

In Sudan all the men of the neighborhood are said to gather in one place and when the adhan or call for prayer is heard they break their fast with dates, apricot nectar and soup made from hot beans before proceeding to the local mosque. Everyone returns to resume eating, perhaps wet raisins and figs among other things, after the prayers.

Thursday evenings see many more people at the mosque for teraweeh or Koranic recitations at most mosques in Malaysia and to read the surat yasin together. Ramadhan is also a time for the mushrooming of many more stalls full of special food and drinks that are sold like hot cakes soon after the sun goes down.

Rusembilian, a Malay fishing village in Thailand sleeps all day during Ramadhan and wakes up only after dark. Here families prepare ketupat, a triangular packet of cooked glutinous rice with coconut wrapped in banana leaf two days before Ramadhan and distribute it to all friends, relatives and neighbors. And if the moon is not sighted here due to bad weather, the villagers are known to delay the fasting by a few days.

At the end of the 30 days of Ramadhan, a feast to top all feasts is held by Muslims everywhere. In the Philippines it is called Hari-Raya Puasa and is celebrated with great fanfare. Everyone wears their best clothes and elders are visited to kiss their hands and ask for forgiveness for past offences. In return the elders give gifts or money and greeting cards are exchanged by everyone. Houses are cleaned and delicacies prepared that are eaten after saying prayers.

All day long the streets resound with the sound of gongs and the wealthy shower coins on children in the streets. It is a day full of physical activities like horse and boat racing and games of strength and skill while the evening brings more recitations from the Koran as if to join in the chorus of prayer of Muslims elsewhere in the world.