KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine

@guardian.co.tt

As mas­quer­aders pre­pare for the fi­nal days of Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions, it will be a more re­flec­tive and solemn pe­ri­od for the Is­lam­ic com­mu­ni­ty, as Mus­lims be­gin the holy month of Ra­madan to­day.

Ra­madan, the ninth month of the Is­lam­ic cal­en­dar, marks the pe­ri­od when the Qur’an was re­vealed to the Prophet Muham­mad.

Fast­ing dur­ing this sa­cred month is one of the Five Pil­lars of Is­lam, and the pres­i­dent of the An­ju­man Sun­nat ul Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion (AS­JA), Imam Ahamad Ho­sein, is urg­ing all Mus­lims to ob­serve the fast.

“What I would like to share is that wher­ev­er Mus­lims are, we should ob­serve the month of Ra­madan, pro­vid­ed we are not trav­ellers or suf­fer­ing from an ill­ness that pre­vents us from fast­ing. We should fast for the month of Ra­madan be­cause it is com­pul­so­ry for every Mus­lim, male or fe­male,” Ho­sein told the Sun­day Guardian yes­ter­day.

While some coun­tries be­gan ob­serv­ing Ra­madan on Feb­ru­ary 28, Ho­sein ex­plained that since the moon was not sight­ed on Fri­day, lo­cal Mus­lims wait­ed an ad­di­tion­al day. This made it 30 days for the month of Sha’ban. He fur­ther ex­plained that Ra­madan fol­lows a lu­nar cy­cle and, as a re­sult, shifts back­wards by ap­prox­i­mate­ly ten to 12 days each year.

De­spite the over­lap be­tween Car­ni­val and the start of Ra­madan, Ho­sein said that it would not af­fect the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty.

Re­gard­ing the com­mu­nal as­pect of fast­ing, he not­ed that meal prepa­ra­tions for If­tar (the evening meal to break the fast) would de­pend on in­di­vid­ual mem­bers.

“Of course, we are hav­ing If­tar Ria, where one mem­ber will be spon­sor­ing If­tar for the en­tire masjid,” he said.