Ramadan, Islam’s month of fasting, is set to start tomorrow. Since Turkey’s population is said to be 98 to 99% Islamic, I expect the Ramadan to be rather noticeable. Hence my decision to start an article about it and introducing the topic, since I’m sure it will be a returning topic over the next month or so.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and starts on September 1 this year. Ramadan’s believed to be the month in which Angel Gabriel revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad. For 30 days, all Muslims are expected to refrain from consuming food and drinks during the day (this includes water and also chewing gum), besides this sexual activity during fasting hours is also forbidden. One is expecting to keep their thoughts and actions pure for the sake of learning patience and humility. It’s a time when even very moderate Muslims who do not go to mosques join in on the fasting and prayer.
At the end of Ramadan, the breaking of the feast is celebrated by the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr, but from what I gather from the papers, the whole month of Ramadan is celebrated. In the old area of Sultanahmet in Istanbul, people get together in the evening to celebrate their ‘iftar’, which is the evening dinner consumed to break the fast. According to Turkish Daily News, you’ll be able to find classic puppet shadow plays throughout the neighbourhood which are filled with humour. This puppet play called Hacivat and Karagözwas popularized during Ottoman period in which the two characters portray the illiterate and the educated class, leading to humorous situations.
The bigger mosques have lines with lights on them spun between their minarets which show a message of prayer during Ramadan, as seen in the picture above. As you can understand, I’m looking forward to witnessing the coming months events. There is one thing however, that I’m not looking forward to.
Every morning at 5 o’ clock, mosques send out their messages of prayer which are supposed to be heard all throughout the neighbourhood. Their soundsystems are REALLY loud and the last week it has woken me up every time. I’m getting used to it however and the last two days it has not woken me up, which is great because this is not a Ramadan thing. This is all year long, each and every day. For Ramadan, as a service to all Muslims, drummers walk around the streets 2 hours before the break of dawn to wake people up with enough time to eat before fasting. Fascinating idea and rather charming, but I’m not sure I’ll be so amused when I get woken up by this for the next month.
Also, in more conservative areas, one can expect to get scolded if seen eating or drinking during the fasting times. Looks like I’ll be staying out of those areas for the next month, or at least showing my respect and refraining from consumption in these areas. Besides this, I look forward to the month of Ramadan and all that it will bring!
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Comments
2 responses to “Ramadan starts tomorrow”
Mashallah may Allah reward you for such noble efforts, it was nice to stumble upon this site.
Thank you for clearing up some preconceived ideas that some of my friends seem to have permanently stuck in their small minds, I know that there are good and bad in all races and religions across the globe but Islam seems to be copping it extremely bad at the moment, and a lot of westerners seem to have forgotten the extremist views of some of the Christian sects, for example the all out war waged in Nth Ireland between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Their antics make Iraq look like a school fight. Again thank you for your truthful info and discussion. and don’t forget peace wins always, Thanks Stuart.