How Was Ramadan This Year?

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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. To our Muslim listeners, Eid Mubarak. For those of you who may not know, last night at sundown mark the end of the month-long gone to sunset fasting of Ramadan for many Muslims around the world. Last year during Ramadan, we took calls from Muslim listeners on how you observe Ramadan during a pandemic, lockdown, and isolation, but of course, last year, the world was a lot more restricted than it is now. As vaccines become more widely available, maybe your Ramadan was similar to how it was before the pandemic, but for others, maybe not yet.

Again, for this year's Eid, we're opening the phones to invite you to call in and tell us what was the most meaningful thing about Ramadan for you this year. 646-435-7280. How did it feel compared to last year? Give us a call, 646-435-7280. Another step in the reopening process comparing this year's Ramadan fast, this year's Eid to last year's, 646-435-7280, who wants in. Joining us again to help take your calls on how Ramadan went this year, is Imam Khalid Latif, University Chaplain for NYU, and Executive Director of the Islamic Center at NYU. Welcome back to WNYC, Imam Latif, and Eid Mubarak.

Imam Khalid Latif: Oh, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Again, listeners, we invite your calls. How did you celebrate Ramadan and Eid this year? Were you able to gather with your friends and family more to break your fast at sundown? 646-435-7280. Were you able to return to your local mosque this year, or gathering greater numbers? If you were less isolated in any way this year, maybe especially after vaccination allowed you to open up more with confidence. How did it influence what you thought and felt during your Ramadan observances? 646-435-7280.

I'll throw in a couple of other things for you Muslim listeners. On the pandemic year, generally, as we hear the Imam in the act of parenting in the background, apparently.

Imam Khalid Latif: [inaudible 00:02:33].

Brian Lehrer: It's okay. Maybe you have found that the time at home without distractions allows you to further rededicate and focus on prayer. Anybody find that? Or is there really no silver lining to the pandemic era?

Also, thinking maybe any new converts out there, how was your first Ramadan experience? If this is not a ritual you grew up with, where have you found meaning? You're invited too. 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. You are invited. Imam Latif, would you tell our non-Muslim listeners, I know we did this last year, but there may be one or two, just tell everybody what Eid is and how it's generally celebrated?

Imam Khalid Latif: Sure. At the end of our month of fasting, Ramadan, we have a holiday that's called Eid al-Fitr, which is essentially the feast of the breaking of the fast. People come together from all walks of life, usually in large communal congregational prayer, in order to celebrate the holiday. Prior to the day, beginning with a lot of people gathering together, friends and family, there's a prayer service that's held usually in larger communal senses, so multiple mosques will come together, host prayers. In New York City these days, people are doing this outdoors and various parks and other settings, as well as within their own mosque's facility.

Going into it, one of the things that becomes important and required prior to the prayer starting is that people give a specific charity so that people who are in need in local communities are also able to celebrate the holiday itself, but the idea is to really take a look back at the month before and everything that people have gained in terms of just spiritual achievement, to celebrate that achievement as you move forward, in your day-to-day life.

Brian Lehrer: Eid al-Fitr is the feast of breaking the fast. There's also Eid al-Adha, right? That's the feast of the sacrifice. When is that?

Imam Khalid Latif: The Eid al-Adha takes place during the time of Hajj, where you have millions of people go for pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, kind of within the Abrahamic tradition, and following rites that were undertaken by the prophet Abraham, peace be upon him and his family members. You see really just the depth and beauty of Islam, in terms of how it synergizes with countries and cultures from all over the world as people come together for this pilgrimage.

Within the days of the Hajj, you have the celebration of Eid al-Adha, which has a little bit different of some rituals attached to it, but essentially, it's still the same thing. Instead of a specific monetary charity that people are giving in the morning, that we do on Eid al-Fitr, for Eid al-Adha within the Abrahamic narrative, people are now providing food to local community members in need and maintaining that sense of social equity and responsibilities. That'll be probably in about two and a half months or so, mid-July.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call. Here's Dalal in Bergen County. Dalal, you're on WNYC, thank you so much for calling in.

Dalal: Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm a big fan of the show.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. How is your Ramadan this year compared to last year?

Dalal: I guess I learned a lot last year about how to focus on the important things in Ramadan, especially, I guess, connecting spiritually, connecting with the Qur'an, connecting with my prayers, and taking away the things that maybe distract us from that. This year, I was definitely grateful that we had some family, more or less isolation, but I also did try to hold on to that sense of inner peace and maybe more focus on the spiritual part. It was very soulful, very prayerful. I think a great balance, that sums it up, thank God for both seeing some family and friends and also saving time for worship and charity and all the things that Khalid was talking about.

Brian Lehrer: You're able to reopen up a little more yourself this year?

Dalal: Yes, we did. The weather was cooperative, so we had a couple of outdoor [unintelligible 00:07:13] with our extended relatives, family, like our parents or siblings, we have a lot of people in the area. We did a little bit social distancing style, but we were vaccinated, and we're all good. We also had a couple of-- Felt more like normal, thankfully.

Brian Lehrer: That's good. You mentioned charity, a couple of times, and I know that's one of the central aspects of Ramadan. Did your own thoughts on charity, like where to give, who to give to, the meaning of it, anything like that? I know, I'm asking you may be a challenging, deep question here, but did it evolve at all, as a result of the pandemic? Just for yourself, did it change in any way?

Dalal: I don't know that it changed, but I feel like we've always been trying to give back the past year, helping in our local community. I actually did see my kids are a little older and got involve them more, and they were more connected with projects that we were working on. I actually tasked each of my kids to look into a charity that they wanted to give to. We gave to a couple of local causes for education, a couple of food pantries, and of course, our local mosque and people who are doing humanitarian work.

Brian Lehrer: Dalal, thank you so much for calling in. Eid Mubarak, and call us again. 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280 for Muslims who want to talk about this Ramadan compared to last Ramadan. Imam, Dalal good example there of starting to be able to open up with more people this year.

Imam Khalid Latif: Yes. We see a lot of gathering. As you could tell, my kids are running around in the background with other kids, we're at a family's house, people are starting to get together congregationally as well as individually. Just as the city opens up, still honoring social distancing rules, but getting back to a place of normalcy, and being able to celebrate the holiday in that way with our loved ones.

Brian Lehrer: We mentioned charity, the caller and I, if I recall our conversation last year, you were talking somewhat about the importance of food insecurity, charities at that time, so many people have lost their jobs. People are having trouble literally putting food on the table. I'm curious how this year has gone for you at the Islamic Center at NYU and the other work that you do with respect to adjusting whatever your charitable acts have been, where the emphasis has been, and then here in Ramadan, where that's essential principle.

Imam Khalid Latif: Our Islamic Center has continued to try to support people in their time of need. This Ramadan, we've raised about $2 million in charitable contributions, about $850,000 going in micro cash grant to New Yorkers in need, who are still dealing with the realities of the pandemic, job loss, home eviction, food insecurity. We've been able to so far distribute about half of what we collected to well over 1,000 individuals, hundreds of households, and we're hoping to continue to do that distribution and collect as much as we can to help people from all backgrounds in our city. We raised about $300,000 in efforts to support survivors of domestic violence here in New York.

We also are raising funds to assist individuals in India, who were deeply impacted by the growing COVID crisis there and have seen so much illness and death, so raised about $600,000 for that. Just a few days ago, with the ongoing escalation of violence in Palestine, we started to raise funds for support in terms of Palestine emergency relief, which has really been something, there's a bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, where a school was bombed, and about 60 young schoolchildren, little girls were killed.

Unfortunately, what we see happening in Palestine, even in Brooklyn, New York today, there's a mosque on Coney Island, called the Tayba Islamic Center, congregants went to observe their Eid's prayers and they found the front of the mosque desecrated with the words "Death to Palestine" on it.

The experience of Ramadan from this year to last year, from the charitable standpoint, both in terms of contributions, but just in terms of us recognizing what it means to be interconnected in shared humanity, and where there are still so many elements that seek to separate, to be xenophobic, to be racist, to be divisive, and the spirit of Ramadan teaches us to move beyond that and to give and support those who are in need in their time of need, regardless of their background.

It's been very hard for a lot of Muslims, where our giving is something that there is a religious and spiritual act, but with the uptick of what we see a global crisis, and also the unfortunate realities of these hateful acts, even here local and a city that's as diverse as New York. It just affirms for us why we need to be doing that much more through a prism of real love and compassion, motivated to do nothing other than just achieve the common good.

Brian Lehrer: Diatou in Bergen County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Diatou.

Diatou: Hi, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Thank you for calling in.

Diatou: Salam Alaikum. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us.

Brian Lehrer: Eid Mubarak. How was your Ramadan different this year from last year?

Diatou: This year is a bit different. I think that one of the beauties of Ramadan is being able to pray together in the masjid in the evening. I would call that [Arabic]. Last year, fortunately, able to do it, it was mostly done at home, but this year, it was great that we had the opportunity to pray our nightly prayers together as a community, even though it was social distancing, and also being able to prayer, the Ramadan Eid prayer together as well.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think this year of isolation changed you? Did it change you spiritually in any way?

Diatou: It did. We take some of these things for granted. Ramadan comes to us every year. We get excited, and we pray the whole month, and we ask for forgiveness and some more blessings, but haven't actually come through COVID and being able to live or be around for another year, healthy and happy and having family close to you healthy and happy, really meant something a lot different and made you appreciate this time that we have together. I'm sure through COVID a lot of people lost people and family members. Being able to have another year together as a family and continue to worship is also a blessing as well.

Brian Lehrer: Diatou, thank you so much for calling in. We're going to take a call now from Roland in Jersey City, who says he's Christian, but celebrating Eid with his Muslim friends. Roland, you're on WNYC with Imam Latif from NYU. Hi, Roland.

Roland: Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Imam. I'm Christian, could I make a point about observing Ramadan? [unintelligible 00:15:11], the time of giving up, but even I'm more than happy about. I have many Muslim friends. I'm Christian, but I have many Muslims friends. I rejoice of this time.

Brian Lehrer: How are you celebrating with your friends today?

Roland: As a matter of fact, I'm doing it probably online, but no visual because I'm isolated because of the virus, but I'm actually going to be going out [unintelligible 00:15:51] to buy a lamb to make a dinner.

Brian Lehrer: That is wonderful.

Roland: Does that make sense?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, it makes sense. It does it. It makes wonderful sense. Thank you. Imam, it's rare enough, isn't it? It's unfortunately too rare, I think, for people across religious lines to get together and celebrate each other's religious holidays.

Imam Khalid Latif: Yes, it was so nice to hear that Roland is able to share in that experience. I think some of the best gatherings that I can remember from both virtual experiences over the course of the last year, as well as those that were prior to COVID, were ones that brought in people of all backgrounds. I think a paradigm of gatherings that are divine, or that they are based off the principles of inclusivity and not exclusivity, Ramadan teaches us that we're meant to all be in a sphere of real interconnection, and egocentricity gets curtailed, and we start to see just in fact how connected we are.

When you have a gathering that is really focused on God, that anyone can actually come to be a part of that gathering, regardless of their background. I think sometimes we, unfortunately, look for a reason to be away from each other, when, fundamentally, we don't need a reason to actually be together. It's enough that we want to share space than to be able to celebrate, both in recognition of where we have similarities and differences. If there was maybe more people like Roland in the world, we'd have a much different set of circumstances that we find ourselves in day-to-day.

Brian Lehrer: Indeed. Are there any references in scripture in particular, that helped you through the pandemic, or that you found yourself quoting or citing more frequently than in the past with groups?

Imam Khalid Latif: Yes. We have a verse in the Qur'an that says, [Arabic], that all of the children of Adam are dignified. In the grammar of it and the actual word utilization, it's not saying that these are just people who share faith with you, but just people who share humanity with you. In [unintelligible 00:18:26] Arabia that Islam is interjected into, you have these clan-based systems, and people were called the Banū of an individual where they had a shared patriarchal figure.

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was part of the clan that was called the Banū Hāshim, because his great grandfather's name was Hashim. You have Banū Adam in this verse in the Qur'an, [Arabic], meaning that all of the children of Adam are meant to be given dignity, that we all have this shared lineage to Adam and Eve, peace be upon them, meaning that we embrace one another.

I think, what this pandemic has showed to us is the need for us to both aspire towards interdependent, move past socially constructed differences that keep us away from each other, and recognize that there are unfortunately many individuals who don't really want to be connected to people who come from a different religious background, or different racial background, or a different socioeconomic background, and why we have to truly honor people of all walks of life, whether they are people of faith or not, whether they share skin color with us or not, they speak the same languages as us or not, that all of the children of Adam are meant to be dignified, and we can create a sphere of engagement.

It doesn't see individualism or independence as a pinnacle of human achievement, but when we can harness and realize interdependence as our pinnacle being reached, then we start to really be able to move forward in the best of ways possible.

Brian Lehrer: Can I get your opinion on something before you go. A new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Corps suggest that faith leaders are key to combating vaccine hesitancy or outright anti-vaccine sentiment. Just curious if you're playing a role in your community in any way, along those lines.

Imam Khalid Latif: I got my COVID vaccination done right at the onset of some of the distribution. I teach courses at New York University in person. I was blessed to be a part of the second group of people that were eligible for it. I've been encouraging members of our community as having Muslim leaders throughout New York City. There's a lot of mosques that are actually providing vaccinations for, again, this same reason. Our individual choices and decisions are not meant to be curtailed in any capacity, but to also see how what we do bears impact on those around us.

A year ago at this time in New York where we were the epicenter of this crisis, I live in Manhattan, in the Grammercy area of Manhattan, where I'm surrounded by different hospitals, NYU Langone, Bellevue, Beth Israel, and it was just weeks into months where there was just sirens and sirens and sirens as ambulances were taking people to overwhelm spaces in hospitals, funeral homes were beyond capacity, and we, as a city, experienced a lot of trauma in the form of illness and death, let alone everything else, that was consequential as a result of the pandemic that we still have right now, people without jobs, people that have been impacted with food insecurity, et cetera.

The vaccination becomes the key element to having us all move forward in a way that brings us back to where we can be and where people have hesitancies, those are valid, and to understand where those hesitancies come from, but to still think about, "What is it that we need as a collective and how my individual choice is still impacting those that I share space with day-to-day as I move forward in my daily routines?"

Our Islamic Center has been encouraging people to get vaccinated. We've been utilizing social media a lot. I was reached out to by some of the major social media organizations asking if it would be okay for them to use some of the images of the days that I got my shot to help encourage more people who might be more receptive hearing for me or seeing for me. I said, "Yes, definitely," because we really want to get forward and move past this so that we are able to really get back to the place of normalcy that we want everyone in the world to be experiencing.

Brian Lehrer: What's on your eat plate? Let's end with food.

Imam Khalid Latif: I'm getting used to trying to eat again after 30 days of fasting and not to alarm anyone who might not be familiar with our fast. We eat, but we just eat once the sun has gone down. From the time it's true dawn until sunset, Muslims who fast and have the ability to fast so that exemptions for people who are pregnant, nursing, the sick, the elderly, those who have to take medications for physical wellness, emotional wellness, mental wellness conditions, the variety of people who don't fast, but when we fast, we're fasting essentially during the daylight hours.

Today, we woke up in the morning, and it doesn't feel strange, but what fasting does as a practice, and people would say this whether they're Muslim or not, it does create and render a different level of awareness and consciousness. Is it okay for me now, 30 days later? I have more mindfulness to my eating and my consumption. I'm at a friend's house and they put out an entire table spread of amazing things. I ate one slider of tuna fish and it basically filled my stomach. I don't know what else to be getting for the rest of the day.

My kids, I have a five-year-old and the eight-year-old, they're going to town, they've had cupcakes and all kinds of different treats. From here, we're going to be going to another friend's house in New Jersey, where they're going to be barbecuing and grilling, and exchange a lot of gifts. I'm assuming at some point, I'm going to take what is a unofficial customary eve, the naps that many people have. This is a result of just getting used to the food again.

Brian Lehrer: I'm guessing that maybe you're looking forward to, and a lot of people are looking forward to since Ramadan, cycles through the entire year to when it's in December or January when the sunrise to sunset hours are much shorter than they are in May. We will have to leave it there for today. I want to thank my guest, Imam Khalid Latif, University Chaplain for NYU and Executive Director of the Islamic Center at NYU. Listeners, thank you for your calls. Eid Mubarak, everyone. Imam, always great to have you on.

Imam Khalid Latif: Thank you so much. Eid Mubarak, everyone.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Coming up next, linguist John McWhorter with his new book, Nine Nasty Words.

 

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