[custom_adv] Millions of Muslims around the world have found different ways to celebrate Ramadan this year, as restrictions imposed by countries to curb the spread of the coronavirus have closed mosques and banned gatherings. [custom_adv] This is when the world's 1.8 billion Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset. Families and friends usually gather to break the fast and many attend prayers. [custom_adv] This year, however, people are having to mark the holy month at home instead. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and it started on or around Thursday. In parts of the world particularly hard hit by the virus, this year's celebrations are tinged with sadness. [custom_adv] Ramadan, the month that Muslims believe God revealed the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, officially begins at the first sighting of the waxing crescent after the new moon, leading to different countries declaring its start a day or two apart. [custom_adv] Officials in Iran have shown a reluctance to clamp down on Ramadan gatherings, even though the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had hinted earlier this month that such measures may be needed. [custom_adv] In Pakistan, with more than 11,000 cases confirmed, authorities have rescinded an order to limit mosque gatherings under pressure from Muslim clerics. In neighboring India, a predominantly Hindu country with an estimated 182 million Muslims, celebrations in cities such as Pune will be curtailed by the epidemic. [custom_adv] In Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population, mainstream Islamic organizations have issued religious pronouncements asking Muslims not to hold mass prayers or to have communal dinners known as iftar to end daily fasts at sunset. [custom_adv] In and around the capital, Jakarta, the government has kept people in lockdown during the outbreak, which has infected, by official count, nearly 7,800 nationwide and killed some 650. [custom_adv] In the United Kingdom, which is home to more than 2.6 million Islamic faithful, the Muslim Council of Britain advised people to host and attend virtual iftars and to tune in to livestreams broadcast by their local mosques. [custom_adv] Ramadan, the month that Muslims believe God revealed the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, officially begins at the first sighting of the waxing crescent after the new moon, leading to different countries declaring its start a day or two apart. [custom_adv] For weeks, Iran downplayed the epidemic within its borders, even as the country's deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, was seen mopping his brow and in apparent distress on television shortly before being diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. [custom_adv] As the world's 1.8 billion Muslims begin observing the holy month of Ramadan, traditionally a time of dawn-to-dusk fasting, festivities and communal prayer, an unprecedented global pandemic is changing the celebration this year in equally unprecedented ways. [custom_adv] Mosques usually brimming with the faithful during Ramadan are closed, including in Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca and Medina, the holiest cities in Islam. The kingdom has some 14,000 confirmed cases, with more than 120 deaths from COVID-19, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. [custom_adv] As followers of Islam all over the world mark the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest month, the coronavirus pandemic has meant the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims have shifted traditions that would usually see them gather in close quarters for prayers and break day-long fasts in the company of their community. [custom_adv] Millions of Muslims around the world have found different ways to celebrate Ramadan this year, as restrictions imposed by countries to curb the spread of the coronavirus have closed mosques and banned gatherings. [custom_adv] It is going to be a very different Ramadan this year due to the Covid-19 global pandemic and the social isolation laws. For 1.8 billion Muslims around the world, the cultural traditions and customs of this religious month of fasting will have to be forsaken for the safety of the global community. As an introvert, I am really looking forward to spending this month focusing inwards, without the burden of social responsibility. [custom_adv] Ramadan in 2020 means no communal gatherings in mosques for “tarawih” night prayers, no large “iftar” dinners with family and friends at sunset to break the day’s fast,and, sadly, restrictions on celebrating Eid, the biggest social holiday for Muslims signalling the end of Ramadan. [custom_adv] Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar, and involves fasting from food, water and marital relations from dawn to dusk for 29-30 days. The current coronavirus rules involve hygiene practices that muslims are encouraged to do in general daily life. [custom_adv] Muslims believe that cleanliness is half of faith, and we perform “wudu”, which is a ritual purification that involves handwashing and washing the face, arms and feet five times a day before each obligatory prayer.
