By Ceoli Jacoby
By the end of April, COVID-19 had already disrupted the high holidays of many religious UMD students. Christian students observed Easter without in-person Sunday services. Jewish students celebrated Passover with seders over Zoom. This month, Muslim students are adapting their Ramadan traditions to a world in isolation.
Ramadan is the ninth and most sacred month of the Islamic year. Muslims believe that during this month, God revealed the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Mohammed. Every day during Ramadan, Muslims who are able fast from sunrise to sunset– one of the five pillars of Islam– and break the fast with a large meal called an iftar. They are encouraged to pray five times a day, with many making a trip to their local mosque for the evening prayer. Most importantly, Muslims use this month to strengthen their commitment to their faith– something that has proved challenging under the current circumstances.
“Typically at least a few times during the month our community has a dinner that they do at the mosque where everyone pitches in money or food or whatever they can and we all go together, so we’re missing that part,” Sonia Khondokar, a junior public health science major, said.
“I feel like it took out the fun part of all these religious festivities…just the little things like seeing my friends at the mosque and hanging out and eating together, those things aren’t there anymore,” added freshman computer science major Saima Ahmed.
With congregational prayer out of the question and iftars with friends and family outside of the home on hold, Muslims have been forced to alter their usual Ramadan activities. Khondokar’s father has been sending her Youtube videos in which imams– Muslim prayer leaders– speak about fulfilling Ramadan duties from home, while Ahmed’s youth group has been active on Instagram Live. The students have also been organizing Zoom iftars.
“A few days ago, before Ramadan started, all of my family and cousins were talking about everyone getting their cameras on at a certain time so we can all have iftar together,” said Khondokar.
“I have a lot of extended family in Bangladesh and out of the country that I don’t see very often, and we’d never really think to have these big group family calls,” added Ahmed. “But for some reason, being in quarantine kind of inspired that.”
While the communal aspect of Ramadan cannot be easily replaced, some Muslim students feel that parts of the holiday have actually been enhanced by the seclusion.
“I thought it was going to be harder [to keep my fast] because before all I did was eat when I’m bored, but actually it’s not that bad because I don’t have to wake up too early to go to school or walk around campus so I’m not getting physically tired,” Khondokar said.
Sophomore biochemistry major Jennifer Mondle said that Ramadan has given her and her family a purpose outside of managing through the pandemic.
“[My mom] has definitely been a lot calmer and easygoing since [Ramadan] started,” she said.
Khondokar and Ahmed shared this sentiment.
“It gives people an outlet to focus on because during this time we’re supposed to pray a lot more and read the Quran,” said Khondokar. “I’m more conscious about positive things.”
“We want to focus on being holy and building our relationship with God and overall just becoming a better person, but I feel like being in quarantine has actually made me focus on that more just because we’re at home with nothing to do but think,” added Ahmed.
The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid al-Fitr, or the festival of breaking of the fast. The festivities can last for up to three days, and are viewed by many Muslims as the most joyous time of year. This year, however, it appears that Eid will look very different as well.
“We’ll probably have a lot of Zoom calls with family, we’ll probably still dress up and take pictures for no reason. We’ll probably celebrate within our own family and just make food and spend time together,” Ahmed said.
“If we can’t have large gatherings when Eid comes around, my mom was saying we could potentially do a big feast as in cook a lot of food at home like we usually do. And then we could just package it and go around and deliver it to people or people could drive by…We don’t have any solid plans but we’ve been thinking about ways we could get creative,” Khondokar added.
While this prospect is understandably disappointing, the UMD’s Muslim community is taking the changes in stride.
“Normally you think, ‘After these thirty days I get to have a really fun day with all my family and friends.” But another aspect of [Ramadan] is that during the thirty days we’re still growing spiritually and it’s all for an important reason other than Eid,” said Ahmed.
“I feel like [the significance] has faded a little bit just because growing up I remember this month where everyone comes together a lot…but I feel like the fact that we’re all going through this…has brought us together in a different way,” added Khondokar.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” said Mondle. “I’m not mad or like cursing God out for this happening. I’ve just been trying to find the good in the situation.”