Eid al-Fitr may look a little different, but faith and fellowship persevere

By Nicki Gorny / The Blade
Wed, 20 May 2020 21:17:48 GMT

Eid al-Fitr is a celebration of a culmination: An entire month of sunrise-to-sunset fasts is no small feat, physically nor spiritually.

But Imam Ahmad Deeb isn’t quite ready to close the door on Ramadan. As he’ll reflect in a sermon on Sunday, Muslims should carry the spirit of the holy month into the rest of the year.

“How can we sustain the spirit of faith that we feel increased on special occasions and in special times?” he challenged. “How can we harness that throughout the rest of the year?”

That forward-thinking need not extend to the rigid terms of fasting, though, according to the religious director of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. Actually, it shouldn't; in a faith tradition that emphasizes balance, it’s forbidden to fast on Eid al-Fitr.

So bring on the brunch on Sunday.

If Eid al-Fitr is always a day to anticipate, as the first of two major holy days in Islam, it was perhaps especially so this year. Dates for Ramadan are determined in line with a lunar calendar, which this year sees Eid al-Fitr on a long holiday weekend in the late springtime. Muslims were looking forward to the coincidence as a convenient opportunity for travel and revelry.

“We were going to make this a really big deal,” Kareem Hammuda said. He's one of the volunteer organizers of the annual community-wide celebration at the SeaGate Convention Centre. Their team was planning to work with the city, he said, continuing a relationship with civic officials that last year saw a historic first-ever iftar (evening meal) at One Government Center.

“We were shooting for even a two-day event,” he said.

But with a pandemic that’s thwarted even the best-laid plans, the community is looking toward a much more low-key celebration this year. Organizers were this year forced to suspend both the community-wide celebration at the convention center, which is generally estimated to draw more than 5,000, as well as a separate annual celebration at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, which in a typical year draws closer to 1,000.

Mosques throughout the region remain largely closed to the public because of the pandemic. While Masjid Saad Foundation, Toledo Muslim Community Center and Tayba Center for Education are adapting to the unusual circumstances this year by hosting drive-thru celebrations on Sunday, offering goodie bags to children, others are encouraging their members to celebrate together while staying apart.

Several mosques present Muslim-American musician Raef in a virtual concert dedicated to the Muslims of Toledo. It's on YouTube at 7 p.m. Sunday. A video compiling greetings from families throughout the community will premiere during that virtual performance.

But greetings and well wishes will be largely offered via phone and video this year, rather than over hugs and handshakes in crowded halls; families will largely remain in their homes as they eat and make merry in the spirit of Eid.

Some will start the day on the spiritual note through virtual connections to their mosques, as they have throughout Ramadan. Several mosques have offered daily reflections in lieu of the usual prayers for which members would have gathered in person on each night in Ramadan.

On Eid al-Fitr, Imam Deeb will lead prayers and offer a sermon at the Islamic Center beginning at 9:45 a.m.; Imam Farooq Aboelzahab is doing the same at the Islamic Society of North West Ohio beginning at 10 a.m.

Imam Deeb said the day’s prayers begin with the takbirat, a prayerful repetition of the Arabic for “God is greater,” as they would if they were able to celebrate in person. He sees the takbirat as a reminder that the spirit of Ramadan continues beyond Eid al-Fitr.

He related it to the spiritual concept of taqwa, which Muslims foster during Ramadan.

“It is a God awareness, a God consciousness, that allows us to be conscious of God in all of our moments,” he said of taqwa. “Through fasting and restricting food and drink, and disciplining the self in that way, we’re able to access a higher part of ourselves, and of course experience hunger, which is important to cultivating gratitude for the blessings that we have.”

The repetitions of the takbirat, then, is “reminding us that God is greater than everything,” he said. “Even though we are celebrating the end of Ramadan, we are sustaining the spirit of Ramadan after it. It's a reminder that taqwa is a lifelong process to inculcate. We have to stay God-conscious and remind ourselves that God is greater.”

An Eid prayer follows, then a sermon. Imam Deeb said he plans to reflect on gratitude and on maintaining the spirit of the holy month; in a point that feels particularly relevant to this year’s unusual circumstances, he’s also thinking about Ramadan “as a means of being aware and more sensitive to the needs of others around us.”

It's a lesson he’s also seeing come out of the pandemic.

“We are now keenly aware of the impact that we have on other people around us,” he said, offering the use of face masks as one example.

In a typical year, the prayers he leads and reflections he offers would lead into a raucous brunch and children's activities at the Islamic Center. Like Mr. Hammuda of community-wide celebration, Islamic Center President Ahmad Taouil said the masjid was particularly excited about the way the date fell this year.

“We had a lot of things planned for it this year — bouncy houses, food trucks, clowns, activities for the kids,” he said. “There would have been a lot of things happening.”

But he and others are quick to temper their disappointment. Safety remains a priority during a pandemic, and they said the community will find new ways to celebrate this year.

Imam Deeb said their faith lets them see the current constraints as an opportunity.

“That's the beautiful thing about faith,” he reflected. “You believe everything is from God, which means that everything is really an opportunity. As opposed to things happening to you, things are happening for you. It’s an opportunity to be creative, to use our imaginations and find ways to celebrate and to make the festivity beautiful, despite the fact that we can’t be together.”

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