by Fahim Mabud
In the 30 days of Ramadan, my family will give up most of their valuables such as food, water, technology, and other personal enjoyments. In that time they spend most of it in intense prayer and reading the holy book, the Quran. During the day, Muslim prays will be uttered five times. The first is before sunrise, Fajr. This ritual happens after they have their last meal before sunrise. The second, Zuhr, occurs in the early hours of the afternoon. The third, Asr, occurs in the later hours of the afternoon. The fourth, Maghrib, occurs during sunset and this is also the time in which the fasting period is over for the day. The fifth, Isha, occurs at dusk and is the final prayer before bedtime. In between the 5 prayer times, the older members of my family will set a large portion of their time to cite the Quran. Every Friday there is a special prayer that occurs during the early hours of the afternoon. During this time both Muslim men and women will set aside their work to gather in their homes of worship, a mosque. This ritual is called Jumma prayer. Jumma prayer does not occur only in the month of Ramadan but every Friday throughout the year. In the mosque the men and women sit in different sections. Before the Jumma prayer would start every mosque would often have a guest speaker to talk about a subject pertaining to Islam. This guest speaker will always be a male. Some of these subjects would often be life lessons that the speaker believes every Muslim should follow. After the speaker is done talking he or another male religious figure of the mosque will initiate the Jumma prayer. After Jumma prayer, everyone leaves the mosque to continue their work. As a child (from the ages of 5 to 10) I remember my father taking me to our local mosque during the month of Ramadan to pray the Jumma prayer. Being the child I was, I did not want to go because I did not want to sit in a room with other men listening to one man who would lecture about something that did not peak my interest. However, I remember one particular day when the guest speaker taught me something that I would never forget. Since this event happened a long time ago, I do not remember the name of the speaker and so from this point on, I will address him as Muhammad. Muhammad was a very old light brown man with a long white patchy beard and a hunched back. I remember him having glasses that made the shape of his nose appear large. Before he began Jumma prayer, Muhammad said he had one last advice to give and it was about family and forgiveness. He stated: “As a Muslim, we must remember that family is important to us. We will not always have the family that we have now. For many of you, it may be easy to hold a grudge and you may believe that it will never change. If you have a grudge with family then you will take it to your grave. If you wish to have a peaceful death I encourage you to set aside your quarrels and be the first one to forgive. In our faith, we must remember to forgive. It is hard and we may not want to but in the month of Ramadan remember we must teach ourselves to set aside our differences to come together. I wish to all of you to make peace with your family for many of them may not live to the next Ramadan.”
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