A Subdued End to Ramadan
Dec. 27 -- Muslims around the world, from Detroit to Damascus, Bangladesh to Burundi, gathered at sunrise this morning to break a month-long religious fast, Ramadan.
Mecca teemed with tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers in the day’s first light, praying and giving thanks as the rising of the sun announced the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid-al-Fitr, a three day period of celebration and feasting.
Ramadan is the holiest month in Islam as it tests a Muslim’s spiritual devotion to God, through inner-reflection and self-sacrifice.
Practicing Muslims must abstain from bodily appetites and desires throughout the day as a gesture of reaching beyond one’s immediate need.
Depriving themselves of food is intended to remind the faithful of what the less fortunate experience.
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are also reminded of the importance of charity and caring for others.
Misery From the MideastHowever, the turmoil of the last three months in the Palestinian territories cast a shadow over the festivities.
As Muslims worldwide celebrated this morning, Palestinian families mourned the nearly 350 people who died in clashes in the West Bank and the Gaza strip in the past few months.
Clerics in less troubled areas urged worshippers to divert zakat, or alms, to the Palestinians.
In Cairo, imams who led millions of worshippers in mosques and city squares urged followers to give the traditional Eid alms to Palestinians who have lost relatives in the uprising. After prayers, some activists sold pictures of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem to raise funds for the Palestinians.
In Saudi Arabia, the religious leader of Islam’s holiest site said “the tragic events” in Palestinian territories are a “source of sorrow to every Arab, Muslim, and fair-minded person in the world”.
“The Jewish invaders have violated the forbidden, desecrated the sacred and usurped our land in Palestine while the whole world has stood idle,” continued Sheik Mohammed Bin Abdellah Al-Sabeel, the imam of Masjid Al Haram, in a sermon following the Eid prayers.
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