Fasting and Forgiveness, Prayer and Purification

While August often brings to mind lazy summer days filled with backyard cookouts and afternoon ice creams, this August is marked by daytime fasting and communal meals after sunset for many Muslims.

“Islam is a very community-oriented religion,” says Zahra Ahmed, of College Park, MD, about her faith.

Across the country, every evening this month through Aug. 29, Muslims “break fast together at the mosque, pray the evening prayers together, and sometimes eat dinner together before praying the nighttime prayer,” Ahmed wrote in an email to Patch.

“In Maryland suburbs, the same thing happens. Most Muslims gather at local mosques to end the day of fasting together and then offer the prayers together. … Because there are many mosques in the MD-DC-VA area, it is very convenient to just pull off the Beltway and gather with other Muslims,” she adds.
 
Gathering at the mosques is not mandatory, Ahmed says, but “it is preferred and it is convenient,” especially for those on their way home from work.

Muslims typically break the fast with dates and water (which is not allowed during the daytime fast), then prayers, then the iftar (Arabic for “breaking the fast”) meal.

Many Muslims will also gather with friends and families in their homes for iftar meals, Ahmed says.

Not everyone fasts, though. Children, pregnant or nursing mothers and people whose health is fragile do not fast. Instead, they may help to feed the poor for a month, as a way to make up the fast.
 
Fasting is only one part of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Muslims also perform good deeds and acts of charity, like helping to feed the poor or preparing a meal for fasting friends and relatives, during Ramadan. Special prayers are said and the Koran is studied. It’s a time for forgiveness, reflection and purification.

Because the Islamic calendar, like the Jewish calendar, is based on the lunar month (rather than the solar day, like the Roman calendar), it begins with the first appearance of a new moon—a very thin crescent. Ramadan comes about 10 days earlier each year, and lasts 29 or 30 days.

An August Ramadan means that the fasting hours are long and hot. And an American Ramadan means that there can be a lot of eating going on around Muslims who are fasting.

But, “during Ramadan, a Muslim knows of the importance of his/her fast. … What I have found … is that people will try to respect you and not eat in front of you if they can help it,” Ahmed says.