(Crosscut) Rehan Bashar misses the night prayers most of all.
As he and his fellow Muslims observe the holy month of Ramadan under the shadow of a pandemic, the 53-year-old dentist from Sammamish is thinking about taraweeh, the additional night prayers for which mosques around the world stay open late during the holiday.
“You tend to participate more in a group setting,” Bashar said. “At home, I feel very lazy. The energy Ramadan usually gives us is not there.”
Widely known as the annual month of fasting in Islam, Ramadan is a time of increased prayer and reflection that teaches empathy and solidarity with the less fortunate. Celebrated in the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, it falls in a different 30-day period each year, ending around May 23 this year
The holiday is also about community, but the typical congregating and connecting were disrupted this year by the coronavirus outbreak, and the subsequent order to stay home and distance ourselves from others. Next: Former state Rep. Jessyn Farrell is running for Seattle mayor
Like so many of the month’s typical traditions, the nightly mosque gatherings for taraweeh are not simply about piety, Bashar said. People come for Quran readings and group prayers, but “in simpler terms,” he said. “It’s when we hang out.”
