Ramadan, the Holy Month For Muslims

Now as you all know, the festive month brings all festivals in one storm, as India is a diverse country you will find several festivals celebrated here with a great grandeur. Same is the case with the celebrations of Ramadan. Ramadan is the 9th month of the lunar calendar of Islam’s. There might be a question that why the dates of the Ramadan do keeps changing every year, the answer to this is that the cycle of the lunar calendar doesn’t match with that of solar calendar. Mainly the month starts, when new moon is sighted. But the timing of visibility of moon may vary from place to place so they agreed upon the modern based lunar calendar. The first day of Ramadan 2011 starts on 1st August, this month of Ramadan 2011 ends after 29 or 30 days that is on Eid ul-Fitr which is on 30th August. This is the month when Muslims observe fast, they main thing in here is that, even small kids here are taught to observe Ramadan fasting. Their fast starts from dawn to sunset, remaining abstain from food, drinks and sexual relations. In some cases when you can’t fast like if pregnant, traveling, elderly or sick, in such cases you can cover the no of days that you weren’t fasting in the whole year any time. There are also cases when you might be physically unable to fast in such cases you can also feed a person who is needy for the no of days you have missed the fast. While I was gathering information about Ramadan fasting, I was shocked when I encountered over one thing that was while fasting they are not even allowed to swallow their saliva, isn’t it too hard, to fast for a long day without even taking in the saliva.

But people do this as a part of their religious faith, it is said that Ramadan is the month when Quran was revealed that provided guidance to people. In Arabic fasting is called as “Saum” or “Siyam” this means to be at rest. Ramadan is the time when Muslims lesser their speed of their worldly affairs and concentrate more on spiritual cleansing, self-reformation and enlightment. They also try and maintain a link between themselves and Gods by the means of prayers, charity, good deeds, helping others and supplication. In this festival people give and share gifts, special food, they also buy things for the poor and needy people who can’t afford to buy all this; they also invite family and friends for Iftar. For those who have no idea about what Iftar is all about it’s a ritual that is performed everyday during the sunset when the whole family sits together for breaking their fast. So for this they also invite family and friends for Iftar. While breaking the fast they do same as what prophet Mohammad used to do, all Muslims break their Ramadan fast by eating a date before starting up with the rest of the meal. After having a date they perform the fourth or fifth prayer of the day called Maghrib and after this all meal is served. During the Ramadan month you will also observe that most of the shop gets closed down at the time of Iftar, though it re-opens again and

also remains open till longer time at night. The evening time is the only time when you can see Muslims shopping, spending time with family and friends, eating. Now-a-days, Iftar also turns up to be as grand feast arranged at hotels wherein all family and friends join in and have fun.

Fasting is done to encourage more on religious teachings of Islam and also to stay away from the irreligious sounds and sights. Maintaining the purity of actions and thoughts is very important during Ramadan fasting. Additionally Muslims also do read Quran and some of them also do the recitation of the entire Quran in special forms of prayers known as Tarawih, these prayers are taken place in mosques at night in the month of Ramadan. In the Ramadan month there is a night called as Laylat al-Qadr, this night is considered to be the holiest night of the entire year. The month of Ramadan is of great significance to Muslims all over the world. This month of Ramadan ends on Eid ul-Fitr, on this day the fasting of 30 days concludes and on this day people visit each other and celebrate the day by giving gifts to one another called as Eidi. This also marks the time when the whole family, friends and relatives come together and have quality time with each other. Though Ramadan is celebrated all over the country by Muslims you can mainly have a look of their celebrations in Mumbai, the capital city of Maharshtra, here you can also have a glimpse at the prayers recitation at the Haji Ali Dargah, Dargah of Syed Burhan ud din of Maharashtra and in Uttar Pradesh you can see the celebration in Jami Masjid.