The return of spring has been welcomed with open arms this year. While most people see it as the end of an especially cold winter, this April, one faith is celebrating the most important month of a spiritual calendar that dates back over 1,000 years.
For Muslims the world over, the month of Ramadan is a time of unity and spiritual renewal. As they fast from sunrise to sunset, families and communities are coming closer together just like they have for centuries. While some in Dayton are fasting this year far from home and others are doing it with their family for the first time, many have welcomed the month of fasting as an opportunity to purify body and spirit.
Muhammad Ahsan, a native of Pakistan who has worked at a Subway in the Dayton region for the past six years, remembers his first Ramadan in America fondly.
“Coming here to work my first job, it would also be my first time fasting and working at the same time,” he said. “Now I’m used to it but back then, when I first saw how late we would break our fast, I was shocked and did not know if I could do it.”
In Pakistan, Ahsan recalls, he and his family would break their fast at around 7:00 PM. Here, the time to break fast is roughly over an hour later. But after that first year, fasting and working around food has been smooth sailing for the Punjab native.
“I’ve been doing it a long time and it’s not a big deal,” he shared. “About 95% of the time it doesn’t affect me at all. It purifies ourselves, like charity for the body and our health.”
Throughout the Middle East and Asia, Ramadan is a time where special dishes are served to families coming together to break their fast. The rich diversity of these Ramadan foods is reflective of the mosaic of cultures that make up the Muslim world from sweets like luqaimat to samosas.
“I miss pakora,” said Ahsan, mentioning the spiced delicacy commonly made in the subcontinent this time of the year. “My sister makes it here, but it’s different. It’s really the gathering of family that I miss.”
Many young Muslims are creating similar memories stateside this year. Haya, an elementary school student, is in the latter camp, enjoying the company of family and friends as she fasts her first Ramadan.
“I love it. It’s been easier than I thought it would be,” she said. “When I get home from school I just read or hang out with my little sisters.”
With the elderly, sickly, and those too young to fast exempt, each Ramadan is an ideal time for the able-bodied to refresh themselves for the year ahead. It is a month of new beginnings and peace, where the deepest values of Islamic society are celebrated. To people of all ages across Dayton this year, there’s simply no better time to come together and rejuvenate the soul.
Ismael Mujahid
Reporter