A RAMADAN APART
With no large gatherings, Muslims will be praying, breaking fast with family alone
As the holy month of Ramadan begins in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Imam Luqman Ahmed of the Kanata Muslim Association says dawn-to-sunset fasting and the intense religious focus will not change. But the social aspects will adapt.
Ramadan begins Thursday, continuing more than a millennium of tradition but with many of the usual events undergoing big changes in a pandemic world.
The month of fasting from dawn to sunset and the intense religious focus will not change. But social events will be largely abandoned, or at least scaled down to the homes of individual families.
“It’s a time for Muslims where they pay greater attention toward their faith,” said Imam Luqman Ahmed of the Kanata Muslim Association.
Normally Muslims would gather for prayer up to five times a day, especially on Friday afternoons.
“That won’t be happening this year. Instead of praying with everybody else, people will only be praying at home with their families,” he said.
Social events are going to change, too.
During Ramadan, people gather at mosques or community centres for evening prayers and after that to read from the Koran before the evening meal.
“After that they break their fast. Everybody either brings something from home, or it is prepared by one family. It’s a big dinner together,” he said. “So again, due to the circumstances, none of that would be happening.”
Technology can fill some of the gaps.
“Ramadan for Muslims is not just about staying hungry. The more important part is about focusing on their faith. So those classes that we used to take in person will now be happening online,” the imam said.
“Just about an hour before the breaking of the fast, those classes will be taking place. Some are taking place on Zoom and some are taking place on Google Hangouts. And some are being livestreamed on YouTube.”
The feast afterward will, however, be only in individual families’ homes.
The month will feel different with people unable to come together.
“Because it’s against the norm, everybody does say we are missing out on something,” the imam said. “Usually Ramadan is a time when Muslims do come together.”
And when Ramadan ends there’s another festival, Eid, which is a happy celebration.
“That’s especially a time of celebration for women and for children, and throughout the month of Ramadan people are preparing for that festival as well. So that kind of adds an additional aspect of joy,” he said.
Again, not this year. But the imam feels it’s not all bad.
Most members of the community are staying home these days.
“From the religious point of view … they say that it has given them more time. Instead of just doing it as a routine they do it with more thought, or they put more commitment into it, just because they have more time,” he said.
“I am 50 years old. This is the most different Ramadan I ever witnessed in my life,” said Ahmed Ibrahim, the president of the Ottawa Mosque.
Ramadan is about self-improvement, connection with the community and charity, he said. These traditions will continue, but they will take a different shape in 2020.
“In the Ottawa Mosque we (normally) have a meal every day for anyone who wants to have a meal. So we serve 200 to 500 individuals every night in Ramadan.”
There are late-night prayers, and social gatherings.
“All of that is changing this year, so we are trying to find ways to help out the needy.”
For instance, the mosque is distributing food in co-operation with a food bank.
Prayers may be conducted by only two or three people, otherwise the mosque will be closed.
It’s a strange feeling of change. If someone had suggested a year ago that Ramadan might happen this way, he says his reaction would have been quick: “Are you crazy? Never, man!”
“It is something that in my mind humbles us,” to know that a simple virus can threaten every human being, he said. “It brings us back to our roots, that we should respect our environment, we should respect ourselves and we should know that our position on this Earth is to take care of it.”