Farnaz Rahmani (taohid@yahoo.com)
Mon, 13 Dec 1999 17:48:40 -0800 (PST)
Note: forwarded message attached.
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attached mail follows:
> items. JazakumAllahuKhairan. Articles like these bring awareness of
> Islam and Muslims and are extremely effective tools in educating
> Americans about Islam.
>
> Also, to be acknowledged are the following Bay Area news agencies that
> responded to ING's request to announce Ramadan on the air the night of
> December 8th and morning of December 9th. They are Television channels
4
> (KRON), channels 7 (KGO), channels 11 (KTVU), which also did a longer
> piece last night (airing not confirmed). (We also contacted radio
stations
>
> KCBS (740AM), KGO (810AM), but we haven't confirmed that announcements
> were
> made.)
>
> Please join ING's "dollar a day for da'wa" campaign. E-mail
<Dawa@ing.org>
>
> for more information.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Bay Area Muslims Prepare for Ramadan
>
> By Carol Ness
> OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
>
> You won't see lavish decorations in department store
> windows, or fat packets of advertising for presents and
> treats, or public displays of religious veneration as Bay
> Area Muslims enter Ramadan, their holiest month.
>
> For devout Muslims, it's a time of fasting and prayer, of
> controlling the most basic desires - to eat, drink, have
> sex, watch TV, snarl at your co-worker or cut people off
> in traffic.
>
> Some Americans might feel downright deprived, but
> Islamic faithful await Ramadan with joy.
>
> "I'm really looking forward to it," said 17-year-old Molly
> Sturdevant, a high school senior in Mountain View. A
> new convert from Christianity to Islam, she could hardly
> wait for the start of her first Ramadan, which is to begin at
> sundown Thursday in the United States.
>
> Said Moina Noor, a San Francisco artist, "Even though
> this is kind of a more difficult month because of the
> fasting, almost every Muslim you talk to will be excited
> about it. My non-Muslim friends are all, 'Oh my God, you
> can't eat all day.' But you are in an elevated state, being
> more spiritual, having more community activities...
>
> "I describe it as the month when you recharge your
> spiritual battery," Noor added.
>
> It's rare that Ramadan, which is based on the lunar
> calendar, occurs at the same time as two other significant
> religious holidays - Christmas and Hanukkah. The
> coincidence serves to underscore Americans' relative
> lack of knowledge about the fundamentals of Islam, which
> has close to or more followers as Christianity worldwide.
>
> The Bay Area is home to an estimated 200,000 of
> California's 1 million Muslims, according to the Islamic
> Networks Group in San Jose.
>
> Crescent moon
>
> Ramadan marks the time when the Muslim holy book, the
> Koran, was revealed by God to the Prophet Mohammed,
> according to Islamic beliefs. It begins when the new
> crescent moon of the lunar month is spotted in the night
> sky and word spreads by telephone, fax and the Internet.
>
> What most people know about Ramadan is the ritual of
> fasting - taking no food or drink, even water, from dawn
> until dark for 30 days. Exceptions are made for
> pre-pubescent children, pregnant women, the ill, the
> insane and Muslims who are traveling.
>
> Souleiman Ghali, executive director of the Islamic
> Society of San Francisco, said Muslims typically get up
> about a half-hour before dawn to "have a good meal that
> is going to take you through the day, have a cup of water
> or drink of tea. You want to eat stuff that is not salty. I
> myself like to have a cup of buttermilk."
>
> After morning prayers, fasting begins, with no food, drink
> or sex allowed until sunset. Tradition calls for eating
> dates to break the fast. And then friends and family gather
> for a special evening meal - iftar - before nightly
> prayers at the mosque.
>
> Though people focus on fasting, all the evening cooking
> and socializing make Ramadan "like Thanksgiving for a
> month," Souleiman said.
>
> At his mosque, on Jones Street in the Tenderloin, between
> 200 and 300 people who may not have homes or families
> of their own will gather nightly to break the fast, he said.
>
> But fasting is only the most visible part of a very interior
> observance that is all about reconnecting with the
> teachings of the Koran and with Islam as a way of life.
>
> "It is controlling everything you do," said Bushra Khan,
> 23, who works in the Islamic Networks Group office.
>
> 'Eyes and tongue'
>
> "You control your eyes and your tongue," she added,
> meaning less TV, looking away from sexual images and
> being aware of bad habits like backbiting. It's a time to
> look at everything one is doing and bring habits in line
> with the teachings of Islam.
>
> More time is spent in reflection, prayer, community and
> charity. Each night, mosques fill up for special evening
> prayers, during which 1/30th of the Koran is recited from
> memory by the imam.
>
> Ghali explained, "It is the month of mercy, the month of
> compassion, the month of forgiveness. It is the month
> people stop and take a look at themselves and their
> surroundings and think about the whole purpose of being
> and where are we going.
>
> "This is what is at the heart of Ramadan, where people
> will just have the relationship with God being examined
> for this whole month on a daily basis," Ghali added.
>
> Sturdevant, who grew up as a nondenominational
> Christian but converted to Islam last February, has no
> worries about the potential rigors of Ramadan - and
> doesn't feel at all deprived of the snacks, TV, music and
> other pleasures of teenage life.
>
> Her first Ramadan will be an opportunity to live to the
> fullest what drew her to Islam in the first place.
>
> "I liked how Muslims seem to live their life in accordance
> to their beliefs, where my experience had been more that
> I'd see people go to church on Sundays and then that was
> it," Sturdevant said.
>
> "Ramadan is a really special time. The rituals give me
> stronger faith and an appreciation for all the things I
> have," she said.
>
> Hamza Hanson, who converted to Islam in the '70s and
> teaches Arabic and Islamic law at the Zaytuna Institute in
> Hayward, said that the rewards of Ramadan might seem
> counterintuitive in a culture of indulgence, but at their
> heart resemble the teachings of every major monotheistic
> religion.
>
> Discipline of the soul
>
> Ramadan is about disciplining the soul and controlling
> humankind's most animalistic urges, he said - something
> rarely rewarded in American culture today.
>
> "There's so much in our culture that's food advertising and
> drink and sex advertising and in the end of the day it
> really makes people miserable because they can't control
> themselves, so we have sex addicts and drug addicts and
> food-aholics and and buy-aholics, people who suffer
> because they never learned to control themselves.
>
> "Then there are all these other people making money off
> them with diet fads and credit programs," Hanson said.
> Secular guilt has merely replaced religious guilt.
>
> Religion, including Islam, teaches that there is
> "redemption if we can learn to control ourselves," he
> said. "Ramadan is a month in which people actually do
> that. It proves to them they can do it. What they are
> challenged with is doing it for the rest of the year."
>
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