Moorestown Muslims are inviting the community to attend a Bring Your Friend to Iftar meal at Pepper House in Mount Laurel on Thursday, March 21.
“Iftar is the meal where we break our fast,” explained Shahrukh Mirza, president of Moorestown Muslims. “Right at sunset, that’s where we’re able to eat and drink and resume normal activities that we’ve been abstaining from throughout the month.”
Muslims and non-Muslims alike recognize Ramadan (from evening on March 10 to April 9) as the most significant and holy time of the Islamic calendar, according to muslimaid.org. During the ninth month of the lunar year, Muslims around the world refrain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset, using their free time to recite the Qur’an and strengthen their bond with Allah.
Muslims must also refrain from all impure thoughts and activities, including swearing, gossiping, arguing, fighting and sexual contact. It is a tradition to break the fast for Suhoor, Iftar and Eid ul-Fitr celebrations by eating dates, a custom that goes back to the very first observance of Ramadan. It is said that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ate dates before he broke his fast. Though it is a custom, it is not a requirement.
“We’re looking to engage as much of the Moorestown community as possible,” Mirza said of the community meal. “To actually sit down with someone from the Muslim community and break that meal, you kind of get a sense of the spirit of Ramadan, where you have that sense of family and food of course, but that spirituality also.”
“That’s really what the month is about, is disconnecting from the basics of life – including food and water – so that you can reflect on yourself and regain that spiritual connection that often gets lost in the remaining months of the year.”
Moorestown Muslims also hosted a crescent moon sighting event at Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown earlier this month. In the Islamic calendar, the sighting marks the start of the month, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich site.
The new crescent visibility varies worldwide, just as sunset and sunrise times do, so not everyone will be able to see it at the same time or even on the same day. The variation across the world can lead to some countries marking religious holidays on different dates.
“It’s meant to gather the community to increase awareness of the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan,” Mirza noted of the crescent moon sighting event. “We’re excited to share this event and also increase awareness not just within the community, but especially within the schools where children as young as typically middle-school age on through high school start fasting.
“So it’s important to let the Muslim youth feel comfortable in saying, ‘I’m not eating today, I’m fasting.’”
Moorestown Muslims was created to help its members establish a sense of normalcy in being Muslim in the township, Mirza pointed out.
“To step away from the mainstream media and the misportrayal of Muslims that have happened for so long is really the purpose of these engaging events, so that the larger community that may not be aware that, ‘Oh, there’s so many Muslims in Moorestown,’ (will know) we’ve always been here,” she related.
“It’s a matter of engaging in a way that lets our presence be normal and lets the community feel comfortable that, ‘Oh you know what? They’re just like us.’”
The community meal’s start time will be shared later on The Sun’s social media.
