Ramadan

1
Ramadan
The Holiest Month for Muslims
2
How it All Started

• Muslims believe God began revealing the Quran to
  Prophet Muhammad in this lunar month in 611 A.D.
  on Mount Hira in Mecca.
• Muslims were instructed to mark this month by
  fasting.

3
Significance of Fasting in Islam

• One of the five pillars of the faith, the others
  being
• Declaration of faith
• Five daily prayers
• Annual almsgiving
• Pilgrimage to Mecca (once)?
• Ordained in the Quran for all Muslims during the
  month of Ramadan except those ill or traveling.

4
What Does it Mean to Fast?

• Self-discipline on multiple levels
• Material
• abstinence from food, drink from dawn to sunset
• Abstinence from sexual activity
• Spiritual
• refraining from slander, argument, and lying
• performing more good deeds and charity
• making more time for prayer
• turning a new leaf

5
Fasting and Spirituality

• Traditions of fasting are found in
• Islam
• Christianity
• Judaism
• Hinduism
• Jainism

6
Eid-ul-Fitr

• Eid immediately follows Ramadan as a three day
  celebration.
• A special morning prayer is followed by a
  friends-and-family greetings and embraces.
• The rest of the three days are filled with fun,
  feasts, and celebrations.

7
Life During Ramadan

• Religion plays a greater role in daily life
  during Ramadan
• Dawn today was at 546 am, so Muslims in
  Pittsburgh woke up before that in order to eat
  Suhoor, the pre-dawn meal.
• The five daily prayers are interspersed amongst
  classes and workmake a special effort during
  Ramadan to pray on time and to fit in extra
  prayers when possible.
• We break fast (Iftar) at sunset every day.

8
CMU Student Life During Ramadan

• The CMU prayer room is a place where many CMU
  Muslims come and go all day, to pray, read the
  Quran or just to take a quiet break.
• CMU Muslims go out for Iftar together once or
  twice a week.
• In general, we go about our daily lives
  unaffected.

9
Concluding Remarks

• Ramadan is the most holy month of the year for
  Muslims because it is when the Quran was first
  revealed
• Fasting is much more than not eating and drinking
• 3 days down!

10
Ramadan MubarakHappy Ramadan!