Muslims Fasting and Feeding the Poor during Ramadan

While Christians prepare for the Holy Week next week and Easter next weekend, April first to May first is considered the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed as a month of fasting. Leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in Belize, Imam Naveed Mangla told News Five that fasting and good deeds are among the most important activities Muslims engage in during this period called Ramadan.

Imam Naveed Mangla

Imam Naveed Mangla, Leader, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at

“Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam – five most important things that a Muslim follows. And it is mandatory upon every Muslim who is physically able and is in the right age to do so and obviously is not traveling or doesn’t have any medical condition. The timing is that it is pre-dawn, which in Belize is about four-thirty in the morning until sunset, which nowadays is about six-fifteen, so for about fourteen hours or so. And during the fast, Muslims are not allowed to drink, eat or smoke or take anything into our bodies. And the whole purpose is to educate us to be grateful for the things that God has granted us. Because when you’re hungry all day and at the end of the day when you’re eating, one thought that comes to your head right away is how fortunate we are to have something on our table by the end of the day and how there are so many other people that are forced to live their lives like this and they don’t have that meal that we get to have. In connection to Ramadan, we will be providing five hundred pantry bags to the needy people here in Belize and the distribution is being done from three different headquarters of ours, mainly here from Belize City, then from Orange Walk and from Belmopan.”