Muslims Welcome Ramadan With A Mix Of Joy And Deep Concern

Muslims around the world are welcoming the arrival of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, intense prayer, charity and feasts.

But as they savor the traditions of their own diverse communities — from holiday treats to evening diversions — the tribulations faced by fellow Muslims are never far from anyone’s mind. This year, war and starvation in the Gaza Strip casts an especially dark shadow on the festivities.

Many are also struggling to buy food as inflation remains high in many countries and has worsened in some.

Still, even Muslims who are struggling economically or otherwise look forward to what are widely seen as the true blessings of the holy month — prayer and reflection, nurtured by the daylong fast, and time spent with loved ones.

No one does Ramadan better than the people of Karachi, at least according to Maulana Tanveer Ul Haq Thanvi, an Islamic scholar in the city in southern Pakistan.

The congregation at his family-run mosque swells from 10,000 to 15,000 during the holy month, and volunteers are working to make sure there is enough space, food and water for the sunset prayers.

From dawn to dusk, observant Muslims the world over will refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse. Even the tiniest sip of water would invalidate the fast, which is intended to help focus the mind on prayer and charity.

“In Ramadan, our prayers are heard and the religious observance is day and night,” Thanvi said. “People want to help others who are needier than them, even those who don’t have much to give.” His sermons will focus on “how people should behave with each other, including when Ramadan is over.”

At sundown, many will break the fast with a date or two, as the Prophet Muhammad was said to have done, before attending evening prayers. Then they will gather for “iftar,” a typically lavish feast shared with friends and family, and a festive atmosphere will prevail late into the night.

“Locals don’t go to sleep. You’ll see kids playing cricket in the street after iftar,” Thanvi said.

Muslims liven up their iftar spreads with their own local delicacies. In Egypt, the shelves are lined with qamar el-din, a sticky apricot treat. In Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, sidewalk vendors make qatayef — tiny pancakes stuffed with cream and nuts and drizzled with syrup.

In Indonesia, with the world’s largest Muslim population, Ramadan rituals vary by region, reflecting the country’s rich and varied culture. Many celebrate with rendang — meat braised in coconut milk and local spices.

This year, it will be harder to come by, as the country grapples with soaring food prices due to worldwide inflation and a poor local rice harvest.

Sari Yanti, a mother of three, stood in a long line at one of several distribution points in the capital, Jakarta, to purchase state-subsidized rice and other staples, saying it had never been this bad. “Prices are going up nowadays, anything to do with cooking is rising,” she said.

Mosques and charities across the Muslim world organize free iftars for the poorest, and sometimes it’s the only meat they will eat all year.

In Cairo, the streets are decked with colorful Ramadan lanterns, bakeries are hawking holiday sweets and TV networks are promoting prime-time soap operas, hoping to capitalize on nightly food comas.

“Ramadan is a month of prayer, but also of desserts,” one man quipped as he waited in line outside a bakery displaying trays of holiday sweets, including baclava, qatayef and kunafa — a syrupy delight made with shredded pastry and topped with crumbled pistachios.

But here too, beneath the normal holiday veneer, many are struggling. The government floated its currency last week as part of an emergency bailout from the International Monetary Fund, causing prices to skyrocket.

One out of every three people in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, was already living in poverty, and in…