Muslim worshippers carry out an evening prayer known as ‘tarawih’ through the eve of the primary day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in Turkey at Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Emrah Gurel, Related Press
The scent of cumin, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander and cinnamon crammed my kitchen on Thursday evening as my daughter cooked an iftar meal after the primary day of Ramadan fasting. She and her husband, a Muslim man from Saudi Arabia, at the moment dwell with us as they put together to purchase their first dwelling. It has been an exquisite alternative for us to study extra about Islam.
My son-in-law, Hassan, instructed me that in Saudi Arabia, they'd start their early morning meal and their night meal by consuming dates. There are a number of causes for this. One custom holds that the Prophet Muhammad would start his iftar by consuming three dates and ingesting water. Dates additionally present a lift in blood sugar, and because of their excessive dietary worth, they can be utilized to assist regulate blood sugar in folks with diabetes. Some research say they may even assist girls go into labor.
Dwelling in Saudi Arabia, Hassan would attend mosque each evening. Right here, the place there’s not a mosque on each nook, he'll drive to companies about an hour away, a number of occasions every week. A part of the fantastic thing about Ramadan is the shared expertise inside one’s neighborhood, a season of forgiveness and compassion.
Ramadan, as I’ve discovered, happens through the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. As a result of the calendar is lunar, and completely different than the Gregorian calendar most of us are used to, the dates of Ramadan shift by about 10 days yearly. In line with NPR, “Muslims imagine that that is the month through which God revealed the primary verses of the Quran to Muhammad.”
For the 30 days of Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from foods and drinks, together with water, from sunup to sunset. There might be extra restraints as properly, together with kissing one’s accomplice throughout fasting hours or chewing gum. The lengthy hours of doing with out remind observers of others who're much less lucky, those that might by no means have a big iftar meal, or who can’t go get a drink of unpolluted water from a faucet. There are some exceptions, after all: pregnant and nursing moms, younger kids, the aged and those that are sick.
Normally accompanying the observance of Ramadan is zakat, or giving to these much less lucky. Zakat is taken into account one of many 5 Pillars of Islam, that are religion, prayer, almsgiving (zakat), fasting and the place potential, hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
Recognition of Ramadan and lodging for fasting are rising. A few English sports activities leagues will cease play at sundown to permit for Muslim athletes to break their fasts. U.S. companies have gotten extra supportive and conscious of their staff who observe Ramadan, and faculties are being extra conscious of fasting implications for his or her college students.
Nonetheless, anti-Muslim bias stays excessive. Dalia Fahmy, the chair of Worldwide Relations and Diplomacy at Lengthy Island College, spoke at BYU a few years in the past. She instructed attendees that 76% of People have unfavourable associations with the phrases Muslim and Islam. Islamophobia has turn out to be a political technique and a enterprise, she mentioned. “The beginning of the Islamophobia business — $50 million a yr to tarnish the picture of Islam within the West as anti-West, anti-women, antisemitic, anti-justice, offended and anti-everything — is a enterprise.”
Nevertheless, Fahmy famous that there's one key factor that drops that 76% right down to 30%. That magic components is realizing and interacting with somebody who's Muslim. As we do, we come to appreciate we “all need our children to go to high school and develop up and be wholesome and we’re civic-minded and we care concerning the setting.”
On April 1, our household will likely be attending a Unity Iftar sponsored by the Utah Muslim Civic League, Al Maida, a corporation supporting Muslim youth in Utah, and Hope Humanitarian, a nonprofit group that works with weak populations around the globe. We welcome alternatives to work together with not solely our son-in-law, however the broader Muslim neighborhood in Utah and around the globe. As Ramadan concludes towards the tip of April, we may also have fun Eid al-Fitr and we are going to do it with a brand-new grandbaby who's due smack in the course of this yr’s most holy month. We're so blessed.
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Coverage.