The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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  • Khola Humayun prays with her children, Najia, 14, right, Sultan, 11, and Bashir, 5, before preparing their dinner during Ramadan at their Tunnel Hill home. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Khola Humayun prays with her children, Najia, 14, right, Sultan, 11, and Bashir, 5, before preparing their dinner during Ramadan at their Tunnel Hill home. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

    ramadan1.jpg

  • Khola Humayun and her son Sultan, 11, prepare fruit to be eaten when they break their daily fast during Ramadan. Her daughter, Najia, 14, prepares dinner. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Khola Humayun sets dates in a bowl with her children, Sultan, 11, and Bashir, 5, during Ramadan at their Tunnel Hill home. Dates are traditionally eaten first when breaking the daily fast. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Najia Humayun, 14, prepares dinner during Ramadan. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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August 24, 2011

Local Muslims observe month-long fast

Rachel Brown rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com

Khola Humayan isn’t on a diet, but she abstains from eating or drinking for most of the day.

She’s been doing so for weeks, putting nothing in her stomach — not even water — from sunrise to sunset, she said, in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Muslims dedicate the month to fasting, prayer, reciting the Quran and doing good deeds. The main purpose of the month is to “gain nearness to God,” Humayan said.

Ramadan is based on a lunar calendar. The month’s end varies by a day or two based on which calendar system observers use, but it is roughly the same as the month of August.

Humayan is a native of Pakistan who came to the United States in 1996. She is a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, an international Muslim revival movement that rejects terrorism, according to its website (www.alislam.org/). Humayan lives in Dalton and worships weekly at a mosque in metro Atlanta.

She and her husband observe the Ramadan fast every year, but their children, ages 14, 11 and 5, aren’t considered yet old enough to do so. Muslim children are exempted from fasts but are usually encouraged to begin partial fasts during their preteen or early teenage years, then complete the entire fast once they are further into their teens.

Is it hard to fast? Humayan says “not really.”

“Of course, I feel thirsty, sometimes hungry, but still I divert my attention to what is the purpose of me holding a fast. So that helps me,” she said.

Shehla Khan of Dalton worships at the Dalton Islamic Center on Dug Gap Road. She said she moved to the United States from Pakistan several years ago for more opportunities and a better life. Ramadan and the fasting associated with it are a “purification of your soul,” she said.

“We try and do as many good deeds as possible,” she said, noting there is also more emphasis on controlling anger, controlling physical needs like hunger and practicing good moral behavior. “It’s supposed to purify your soul and get you ready for the rest of the year.”

“It is hard at first,” she said of the fast. “It’s very hard when you start doing it during the beginning, and it’s quite long this year. It’s about 15 hours (a day) this year. Hunger is not so bad, but thirst is pretty bad when it’s hot.”

Khan said Muslims typically do more charitable and volunteer work during Ramadan than at other times of the year, but their religion requires them to continue doing good deeds throughout the year. It is similar to the concept of doing good at Christmastime but keeping the spirit all year long, she said. Giving at Ramadan is said to bring 70 times more blessings on the giver than it does during other times of the year, she said.

Khan volunteers at the mosque in Dalton, cleaning, spending time doing activities with the children or doing “whatever needs to be done,” she said.

The children are taught about the life of the prophet Muhammad and are versed in religious tradition. Muslims believe Muhammad, who lived from 570 to 632, received his first direct revelations from God during Ramadan, which he wrote down in what is now known as the Quran. Followers of the religion believe Jesus Christ was one of God’s prophets, but they do not acknowledge him to be omnipotent or divine.

Erum Ebrahim, a Rocky Face resident who is a member of the mosque in Dalton, said Muslims have a special night of Laylat al-qadr, which falls during one of the last 10 days of Ramadan.

“It basically means ‘a night of power,’” she said. “On those last 10 nights, people increase their efforts.”

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