Muslims prepared for the fasting month

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.