Calgary’s Muslim Community Comes Together to Celebrate Ramadan
It is the holiest month of Islam and is marked by fasting from dawn to dusk to teach self-control and discipline and to raise awareness about the less fortunate.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar and Muslims believe fasting improves their moral character and offers spiritual renewal.
"This is the main purpose of the month of Ramadan, to allow us to evaluate ourselves for one month, this is an opportunity to evaluate where we are, how we are behaving, how we are acting with our fellow human beings and out of this one month of fasting, we are evolved, we are better human beings, we are more giving, more caring, and more loving,” said Imam Syed Hadi Hasan.
In the evening worshippers break the fast with dates and water and dinner, known as Iftar, is served after the sunset prayer.
Muslims around the world began the 30 day celebration on June 6 or 7 and at the Hussaini Association of Calgary, Iftar is a potluck style feast.
Each night during Ramadan, worshippers go to local mosques to pray and share in the evening meal.While many admit the long hours make the religious fast more difficult they recognize the greater purpose.
"You get so used to it and you begin to think of the greater purpose behind it other than just hunger and thirst. You begin to think about other people and, you know, we know we’re going to get food in the evening so I think that makes it easier, because there are people who won’t get food so it's just a time to reflect on people who don't have those blessings,” said Assa Riyaz.
"It’s good practice for you to feel how others feel when they’re hungry for 24 hours, multi-days,” said Shabbir Rizvi. "It’s fasting for all your parts of the body, for your spirit as well and that spirit I mean, those sins or those ailments which are related to our soul like lying, like back biting, like jealousy, those are all kinds of things, are ailments for your spirit so especially in this month, people try not to, at least, do those things so that they are spiritually pure as well.”
"The month of Ramadan is the month of charity as well. The people, Muslims, that’s the philosophy behind the Ramadan is like when we hold the fasting days and we feel the pain and the suffering of the needy ones around the world who don’t have food on their table and we feel the actual hunger so we can remember this throughout the year, it’s not just for the month of Ramadan,” said Riyaz Khawaja, spokesperson for the Hussaini Association of Calgary.
Ramadan ends in a celebration called Eid ul-Fitr and this year it is on July 6th or 7th, depending on the sighting of the moon.
Source: CTV News
