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Community Corner

Mosque Leader Explains Ramadan: 'You Feel What Hunger Means'

At the start of a month-long religious holiday, a vice president at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, the largest in the Chicago area, tells us what Ramadan means for Muslims.

For four weeks out of every year Muslims are expected to abstain mostly from eating and drinking during daylight hours in remembrance of the month when the Prophet Muhammad supposedly first received his revelation.

At the start of Ramadan, Patch spoke with Oussama Jammal, vice president of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, the largest in the Chicago area, about the benefits and challenges of fasting and breaking bread with non-Muslims.

Oak Lawn Patch: What does Ramadan mean for the local Muslim community?

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Oussama Jammal: Muslims believe that fasting was prescribed on those before them. In Christianity and Judaism, people also fasted, and it is part of their religion and therefore their fasting is no different than what the other prophets have exercised and practiced. And of course this is something you do to get closer to God.

 The month of Ramadan means a lot to Muslims. This is a month of reconnecting, reenergizing. This is a month of discipline, a month of definitely reading the Koran—so it is a month of reflection, it is a month of giving, it is a month of sharing. You feel what hunger means. You feel what deprivation means. So this is truly an awesome month that Muslims go through a lot of lessons, a lot of personal experience, and therefore it is one of the pillars of the Five Pillars of Islam. It is also a means of family getting together … the whole community gets together. Congregational prayers are large numbers, especially the evening ones.

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Oak Lawn Patch: What is the significance of fasting on the body and how does that make you feel closer to God?

Jammal: We don’t eat or drink from dawn ‘til sunset. Absolutely no food, no water, no nothing. Absolutely nothing gets into your mouth. If someone is sick and has to take medication, then they take medication and don’t have to fast. When physicians and health experts look at fasting, it is actually very healthy for the body: your stomach relaxes, you digest what could not be digest(ed) throughout the year … It’s a great diet. It’s a great diet if you look at it from that perspective. We believe that every ritual of our religious practices has a benefit in addition to its religious meaning.

Oak Lawn Patch: How does God reward those who complete fasting? Is there a pardoning of past sins?

Yes, it is forgiving. It is also a reward for entering heaven. Of course, you don’t fast and then after that commit a crime. What I mean is when you are fasting you definitely need to commit yourself to God and He does reward with forgiveness, with rewards to help you the year after, to get into heaven.

Oak Lawn Patch: Ramadan changes during the year depending on the Muslim calendar. It must be more difficult to fast during the summer. What challenges lay ahead?

Jammal: Yes, it is two parts. The first part is that you experience Ramadan through different seasons … so it moves around the year. The lunar year is almost 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year … In winter time it is, yes, very short. Most of the time, the break-fasting is when you’re still at work. And in the summer time it is really into the night, at 8:30 … It does pose a challenge on a hot, humid day. Yeah, it is a little tough to be under hot, thirsty conditions and not be able to drink … but that’s why you’re showing your commitment to God. That’s how you’re committed to worship God, and you’re willing to go through (it) completely, and I’m going to stop eating and drinking for the sake of God.

Oak Lawn Patch: Ramadan is followed by the Feast of Fast-Breaking?

Jammal: Yes. Once the month is concluded, again depending on the setting of the moon, it can only be 29 days or 30 days. It cannot be 31 days. It cannot be 28 days. So the lunar calendar is always 29 days or 30 days. At the end of the month of Ramadan, there is what we call an eid, or holiday, and it’s Eid ul-Fitr, which means Fasting Holiday.

It starts the first day after Ramadan and people rejoice, thanking God for helping us get through the month and helping us conclude the month of fasting, being able to fast to be able to give charity, to be able to go through it. It’s a holiday where people show gifts and invite each other to get together for a feast, tools, new clothes, gifts, toys for kids. Going out and eating out or cooking big meals. So it is all that. It is a celebration at the end of the month.

Oak Lawn Patch: During Ramadan do you have any interaction with other religious groups in the area?

Jammal: We do have the annual Ramadan Iftar at the Mosque Foundation (in Bridgeview), for instance, and we do invite the village’s leaders and groups from different churches around us, colleges, businesses, public officials—all kinds of non-Muslims to come and share with us a day of that Ramadan that would basically be the break-fasting.

It’s become a tradition at the Mosque Foundation, and we invite a guest speaker. In the past we had Cardinal Francis George … Our programs around Ramadan, there’s going to be a lot of invitations. Organizations (in the area) hold dinners and invite their friends and other non-Muslim colleagues or leadership. So, there’s quite a bit of activity here during the month of Ramadan.

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