Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991 TAG: 9104020183
SECTION: DAYS OF REVERENCE PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For El Amin, the leader of Muslim congregations in Roanoke and Rocky Mount, the special annual religious observance lasts longer than Easter for Christians and Passover for Jews.
It's somewhat unusual, he said recently from his Salem home, for three major holy periods of world faiths to coincide as they do this spring of 1991.
Ramadan begins with sighting of the new moon, the month being calculated in a way that he said "is too complicated to matter."
The timing of the month varies, however, from year to year, and the necessary fasting is most arduous when the Ramadan falls in the hot months, he noted.
For Muslims the world over Ramadan this spring is March 16-April 14. The first sighting of the moon is reported from the international headquarters of Islam in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and word is relayed to groups throughout the world, such as the ones El Amin leads.
Ramadan, said El Amin, whose title of "imam" is roughly similar to pastor or prayer leader, is a month for self-denial and repentance, a turning around to God the creator.
Fasting from food and sexual activity during the daylight hours is the major characteristic.
At 66, the imam is not obliged to follow the fast strictly - last year a health problem reduced his participation - but he is carrying out the disciplines this spring.
El Amin rises before dawn to eat a breakfast of cereal and fruit and to say the first of the series of prayers used by the Islamic faithful during the 28-day period.
Once the sun is up, El Amin and other observant adult Muslims, who are not ill or traveling, will take no water or food until after dark.
Once the sun has set, families gather for more prayers and a normal meal, "not a feast," El Amin noted.
Married people, who observant Muslims teach are the only ones supposed to be engaging in sexual activity, also may enjoy that at night.
The feast comes later, along with merrymaking, on the evening and day after the next new moon appears in the sky.
by CNB