Ramadan Traditions Connect Muslims Across Cultures, Continents
- Hooriyah Kamran
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Sometimes observing one’s religious faith means abstaining from food and drink.
Other times it’s all about the food.
For Muslims during Ramadan, it’s about both.
For an entire month, South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East are lit up with lights and decorations to celebrate Islam’s holiest time. Adhan (the Muslim call to prayer) sounds out, signaling Iftar throughout the month with families gathered and waiting at the table eagerly.
Samosas, baklava, zamai, khakh, mansaf, sheer khurma – cultural dishes from all over the world that Muslims commonly eat during Ramadan and Eid al Fitr (the festival at the end of Ramadan)The meal marks the end of the day’s fast for observant Muslims, an eagerly awaited feast for the hungry faithful.
Ramadan is a special time for Muslims that doesn’t directly translate to similar religious periods in other faiths. Christians have Lent, Jews have Sabbath abstentions and Passover. Hindus have Diwali. But none of these faith traditions and periods of intensive religious practice have the same duration, daily ritual, similar practice worldwide and focus on food as the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims believe Allah (God) revealed the holy Quran to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
“In the U.S. the population is very diverse, so we meet a lot of different cultures, getting together. But what unites us is the prayer, whether you're in India, whether you pray at home, or whether you pray in the mosque, it's the same,” said Zubaida Asad, a retired Oklahoma State Department of Health consultant who was born in India.
That is the magic of Ramadan.
What is Ramadan?
“Ramadan is a call to come back to our Lord, to worship, praising, faith and strengthening your spirit. It’s about worship, manners and socializing,” said Saad Aborahma, imam of the Grand Mosque of OKC. An imam is roughly akin to a priest or pastor at a church.
During Ramadan, Muslims are to refrain from food and water from dusk until dawn, and also other activities such as smoking and sinning, and negative practices like anger, gossiping and lying.
The purpose of Ramadan is to get rid of bad habits, to purify, to reconcile oneself and strengthen the faith by practicing Islam by heart, worshiping Allah’s commandments.
Some bad habits are obvious – being angry, for example. Others are more subtle. A common bad habit that most fasting Muslims don’t even realize is wasting food during the pre-fast meal eaten before sunrise (Suhoor) and Iftar (the post-sunset meal). With Iftar dinners often functioning as social gatherings, food waste has become common.
Retired anesthesiologist and Grand Mosque co-founder Amathul Azeem Shakir described how this waste ties to Muslims’ obligations during Ramadan. It involves the concept of diminishing the spiritual impact of one’s fast because of food waste.
“So, it's between Haqququllah and Haqququl Ibad. You know Haqququllah? So, this means that the obligations towards Allah and the obligation towards humans, humanity. So, that's a contradiction. So, you are doing prayer even though as a personal self like wasting food that's also not a good thing. You are fasting even though when you are wasting so this means you are wasting your fast also,” she said.
Celebrating Ramadan in Muslim Countries
Many Muslims living in Oklahoma say there are marked differences between how the Holy month is celebrated here versus how it’s celebrated in Muslim-majority countries.
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A common tradition in Muslim countries is the sighting of the crescent moon, indicating that Ramadan has started and Sha’ban (the eighth month of the Islam calendar) has ended. People come out of their houses after sunset and try to observe the waxing crescent, then pray for divine intercession. Mosques are full of people for the very first taraweeh (a special prayer at day’s end during the holy month).
At sunset on Ramadan’s first day, the feast begins, the reward for a day of fasting and prayer.
Iftars consist of all sorts of cultural dishes, including dates, which are eaten to break the day’s fast. Family members gather at the table to break their fasts, waiting for the call to dusk prayer, called maghrib.
To coordinate this every day for a month requires planning. It means making food beforehand and freezing it, getting groceries in advance and knowing sleep schedules will be disrupted.
Iman Saad recalled happy times celebrating Ramadan in Egypt.
“Celebrating Ramadan as a kid back in Egypt was playing in the streets after taraweeh, and I would go through the rows with a jug, you know, and give people water if they were thirsty,” he said.
Celebrating Ramadan in the United States
As one might imagine, celebrating Ramadan in non-Muslim countries is different. There aren’t calls to prayer from familiar minarets throughout the day, and American Muslims typically don’t have the extended family networks they would celebrate with back home. And then there’s the matter of even knowing exactly when the Holy month begins – a crucial piece of timing.
“It is different here, mainly, most of Muslims don’t have to witness the crescent (moon). They follow satellite to know the beginning and ending of Ramadan and Eid,” said Banan Alkhalafat, an Arabic language and Islamic studies teacher who is from Jordan.
Muslims in the United States rely on the internet to know about prayer times, sunsets and other necessary information. Families gather, but they may be missing grandparents, uncles, aunts and others who would meet but are thousands of miles away.
That can be difficult for many Muslims in the United States. And then there’s the American tendency to become overly busy and neglect gatherings, spending less time with our extended families than we know we should.
“The big difference is here, there is no, not much social life here. You know, so, my family was here who came first, that is, my husband and myself. Then his brothers came one by one. OK, so then, I don't know, for some reason we're all very busy and we don't use that relationship to visit. So we celebrated at home. We all went to the mosque,” Shakir said.
In Egypt, for example, everyone participated in the daily observances.
“Back in Egypt we would pray outside of the village, there would be one or two acres of just grass, and the entire village would come and pray the Eid prayer,” Saad said. Kids also received treats, gifts, and money, called Eidi, from family, friends and others, he recalled.
As for prayers, the mosques in Oklahoma City and elsewhere are packed during Ramadan, but many of those interviewed said it just isn’t the same as being in a Muslim-majority countries.
“I really miss the sound of adhan all over the country to break your fast in Ramadan and the sound of takbeerat also at Eid,” Alkhalafat said.
