When we drove to big city, Des Moines, my parents would stop at payphones and search for Muslim-sounding names in the phone book. They discovered a community whose locus was a house of Malaysian students near the campus of Drake University. This makeshift mosque was the first place that I experienced communal iftaars. Read more
How can I make others understand what the heck is going on in our mosques with hundreds of cars being parked and traffic problems galore? How can I make the people around me realize that Ramadan has very little do with food, which somehow always seems to be the main focal point, and has everything to do with self-change and connection to Allah? How do I speak about and relay the central role of the Quran in this month? How do I speak about these things to give others a window into our Ramadan world? Read more
Let us then direct our charity and prayers towards the 20 million people in Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan who are at imminent risk of starvation. For whom this Ramadan brings not the spiritual comforts of fasting but hellish hunger and the helpless horror of watching the most vulnerable among them slowly die. Read more
My fast, faith, and fight are all intertwined just like my ancestor Bartlett, because being Black in the United States doesn't spare you from that reality. It doesn't matter how you identify religiously, politically or economically; it is your fight. Read more
But my Ramadan battles with caffeine-withdrawal, which may seem trivial to some -- and realistically there are others who have greater challenges during the month than me -- I believe hint to another point: Let’s call it, “The Real Lives of Fasting Muslims.” Read more
Minutes later, a door swung open, and I was confronted with jubilant chatter. Muslim men sat around communal tables eating and laughing. I may have stared, if only for a moment, before an older Chinese man ushered me inside and gestured for me to sit. It wasn’t until later that I figured out I’d arrived at my first iftaar. Read more
This Ramadan, think of the pains you have held on to and free yourself (with guided help). If we want His forgiveness and His Mercy, we need to be able to give it unconditionally. Only then will darkness transform to light. Read more
Are we supposed to cut ourselves off from others and retreat in our homes for the whole month in order to reach some heightened level of spiritual enlightenment? Is “socializing” during Ramadan a categorically blameworthy act? Or are there positive ways to socialize that are also spiritually uplifting and enlightening, and if so, what are they? And most importantly, what was the practice of our Beloved Prophet ﷺ (God’s peace and blessings upon him)? Read more
The number of years it takes our beloved Ramadan to complete a seasonal cycle. A cycle fashioned by Al-Musawwir, The Fashioner. A cycle that allows us to experience the blessings of Ramadan during the death of winter. A cycle that allows us to bear witness to Allah’s mercy during the renewal of spring. A cycle that allows us to greet the Month of the Qur’an in the heat of summer. A most beautiful cycle that allows us to know the Holy Month through the transitions of fall. Read more
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How ‘Act for America’ and Anti-Muslim Protesters Could Benefit from a Ramadan Iftaar
Perhaps Act for America thinks they are meeting a national crisis through this demonstration. But if they were open to discovering the real facts, what better time to determine these than during the holy month of Ramadan, a time the Koran orders believers to act peacefully. Were they to partake with Muslims in Iftar, the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan, they might learn the real facts. Read more