‘EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL’
After difficult year, Muslims gather — safely — to pray for Ramadan
STAMFORD — Mohiuddin and Sabaa Kakiwala may not be able to share a meal with a large group of friends and neighbors after fasting from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, but the Stamford couple said they can do more this year to celebrate the holy month than they could last year — and they’re thankful.
Mohiuddin Kakiwala said he went to the Stamford Islamic Center for prayers on Monday night. The mosque on West Avenue was closed during Ramadan last year.
He said that after a difficult year, he was grateful to be able to pray with members of his community at the start of his religion’s holiest month.
“It was a very great experience.
It was a very emotional, spiritual experience,” he said.
Last year, the couple and their children spent Ramadan with just each other, praying and reading the Quran together. They have a 9-year-old daughter, Sara, and an 8year-old son, Ali.
Usually during Ramadan, the family goes to the Stamford Islamic Center on the weekends to break their fast with more than a hundred other people.
“It’s a beautiful party every single day,” Sabaa Kakiwala said.
She said that this year, she is happy to at least be dropping off meals at friends’ doorsteps.
Gov. Ned Lamont has lifted capacity limits for places of worship in Connecticut, but masks and social distancing are still required.
Shahzad Khawaja, a member of the Stamford Islamic Center’s board of directors, said worshipers are expected to bring their own prayer mats, wear masks and stay 6 feet apart from one another. About 130 people can fit inside the mosque normally, but the center is limiting its indoor capacity to about 55 people. It also has a tent set up outside for any attendees who may be nervous about gathering indoors.
Khawaja said the center is also reminding people that if they have any symptoms or have traveled recently, then they should pray at home.
“We’re still being cautious,” Khawaja said, even though many members of the center have been vaccinated.
For those who haven’t been vaccinated yet, Khawaja said Hafiz Haqqani Mian Qadri, the center’s imam, has told members of the community that it isn’t considered breaking their fast if they receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Islamic Cultural Center of New York-Stamford, whose mosque is on Washington Boulevard, has a similar plan for Ramadan, according to a post on the center’s Facebook page.
In past years, at the end of Ramadan, hundreds of Muslims have celebrated Eid al-Fitr at the Stamford Italian Center. Khawaja said the plan is to hold a service there this year, but because of social distancing, fewer people will be in attendance.
He said the pandemic has served as a reminder that “sometimes you don’t have everything in your control.”
People appear to be “spending more time in their prayers,” Khawaja said. Praying, he said, provides the “serenity and peace of mind that you need to continue in tough times.”