On Friday dozens of Muslims and other members of the community gathered at Southern Cross University’s Lismore campus to pray and to break the daily Ramadan fast – Iftar.
This year Ramadan began on May 6 and will end at sundown on June 4 – the Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar, the holiday began on the sunset of the previous day, May 5.
SCU Muslim Students along with the local Muslim community are observing Ramadan, a period of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad.
According to Islamic belief, in this significant month, the angel Gabriel ― the same angel that visited Mary in the Gospels ― appeared to Muhammad in a cave and had an exchange with him that would change his life, revolutionize his society and affect the world forever.
During Ramadan, practising adult Muslims traditionally fast from dawn to dusk and abstain from all eating, drinking and any vices in daylight hours and make an extra effort in prayer and charity.
Fasting is prescribed in Islam and is compulsory for every healthy Muslim who is sane and mature – male or female. It is not mandatory for the elderly, women who are pregnant, lactating or menstruating, people who are ill or travellers.
The aim of this intense discipline is to align practitioners more closely to God.
Each evening at sunset Muslims break the fast with a shared meal, called an Iftar. The fast is broken at the time of the call to prayer for the evening prayer. This is their second meal of the day; the daily fast during Ramadan begins immediately after the pre-dawn meal of Suhur and continues during the daylight hours, ending with sunset.
During last Friday’s event, a short film made by one of the students was screened. It showed the contribution of the Lismore Muslim community to the 2017 flood recovery.
The Iftar feast, which is an annual family event at SCU, was celebrated by Muslims and several members of the non-Muslim community.
(And everyone ate a yummy dinner, learned some new things, talked and made friends, and had an awesome time.)
Photos Tree Faerie
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