The cellphones start ringing at 4 a.m. these days in the Muhammad household. It’s Khadijah Muhammad calling to tell her kids to come down and eat before the sun rises.
Muhammad (pictured) is in the house with them. She has discovered that a cellphone call is the most reliable alarm clock for her four kids. It’s always in arm’s reach by their bedside.
The Muhammad family lives in the Quinnipiac Meadows neighborhood of New Haven. Like all observant Muslims, they observe the holy month of Ramadan by refraining from eating or drinking during daylight hours. That means they get up an hour and a half earlier than normal to make sure they can have breakfast before dawn.
It also means 30 days of prayer and reflection. Ramadan is a month of purification, where members of the Islamic community cultivate self-restraint, mercy, and forgiveness.
Muhammad and three of her kids were among a score of local Muslims that attended Friday services at the Muhammad Islamic Center at 780 Dixwell Ave. The masjid, or mosque, will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year.
Friday was roughly the halfway point of Ramadan, which this year runs from the new moon in August to the new moon in September. It’s a month when Khadijah Muhammad makes sure that she lets the schools know not to worry if her kids seem less enthusiastic than normal. They’re just fasting.
“I tend to be more grumpy,” said Aminah Muhammad, an eighth-grader at Amistad Middle Academy.
Going without daytime meals helps her family to recognize how fortunate they are, and to understand the pain of people with no food, Khadijah Muhammad said. “Now we think about people who don’t eat.”
At the end of Ramadan, she feels transformed, Muhammad said. “It’s a huge cleansing and purifying process.”
“Ramadan is the month in which our holy book, the Koran, was revealed to the prophet,” explained Imam Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan. The imam was sitting with his shoes off in the foyer of the masjid at 1 p.m. on Friday, as the sound of the call to prayer issued from another room. Ramadan is a month of introspection, Hasan explained, during which “we try to correct ourselves.”
Inside the main prayer room, Assistant Imam Shahid Abdul-Karim (pictured) delivered a sermon as members of the masjid filtered in and performed their prayers or called out “Allahu Akbar!” in agreement.
“Allah gives us this month as a month of reflection,” Abdul-Karim said. He urged those gathered to carry their purification beyond the 30 days of fasting. “Ramadan is forever,” he said. “We are forever trying to be the best human beings.”
After Abdul-Karim’s sermon, Abdul Shaheed stood by the men’s entrance holding the collection plate. Shaheed, who lives Quinnipiac Meadows, works as a corrections officer. Ramadan means a change to his work routine. Instead of having lunch with his friends, he finds a quiet place to read the Koran and pray.
When people ask him about his month of fasting, Shaheed said, he often encourages them to try it for themselves. “You feel good!”
So I guess the Taliban is chilling out this month, and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1576182/Saudi-Arabia-to-lift-ban-on-women-drivers.html" rel="nofollow">women can drive cars in Saudi Arabia</a> (it's never to late to change; welcome to the early twentieth century)? <p>"Ramadan is a month of purification, where [some] members of the Islamic community cultivate self-restraint, mercy, and forgiveness." When they're not hating on <a href="http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/Persecution_of_Homosexuals" rel="nofollow">Gays</a>, <a href="http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/06/22/persecution-of-women-in-iran-a-la…-taliban-style/" rel="nofollow">Women</a>, <a href="http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/06/22/persecution-of-women-in-iran-a-la…-taliban-style/" rel="nofollow">apostates</a> and <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HJJ0posDfDUC&lpg=PA35&ots=c9H9OLgbkj&dq=muslim persecution of infidels&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q=muslim persecution of infidels&f=false" rel="nofollow">infidels</a>...<p>Although, to be "fair" the axis of evil: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are all united in their hatred of 'the Gays' and oppression of women.<p>The invisible magic sky faerie is sure hard to please.</p></p></p>