Merhaba on this cok guzel gun (beautiful day)!
Today is a very important day during Ramadan. According to Muslim, today is the day that God took Muhammad up the seven levels to speak with him. Muhammad is Muslim's only prophet to have spoken with God personally. This evening, we will go near the Hagi Sofiya to eat dinner, and I will have the chance to experience Iftar outside watching all the people at the restaurants wait until Ezan to drink that first glass of water and open their oruc (break their fast). Today, more than any other day in Ramadan, oruc is significant for all Muslims whether they have been fasting the entire month or not.
Oruc entails much more than just fasting the 16 hours however. Oruc is an overall cleansing and fasting. No alcohol, no smoking, no sex, and, of course, no food and water until Iftar. As it was beautiful said to me, "God does not need you to be hungry or thirsty." The purpose of Oruc is much, much deeper.
Ramadan is a long standing tradition in Muslim religion that originally fell on the ninth calendar month of the year. It is said that during this time, Muhammad received the Qu'ran from God. It is in the Qu'ran that Muhammad charges all Muslims to fast. Later, Ramadan served not only a religious purpose, but also to help preserve food from harvests that were brought during this period in preparation for winter.
Locals say that in the past eight years, more and more Muslism are not participating in Ramadan because of the burden that the conservative government places on the people to participate. The government controls television commercials, most of which are Ramadan themed, to the price of bread, especially Pide, the special Ramadan bread and these are only two examples of the many things that the government owns and uses as propaganda for Ramadan.
The government also works to provide for those who may not be able to participate in Ramadan. Huge food areas are set up for Iftar and Sahur giving away free meals that include the traditional Corba (soup), main meal with meat, and come complete with dessert in many cases.
While we are waiting for Sahur in the morning, we watch a government run program I wrote about previously in my blog. The program reads from the Qu'ran, discusses Iman (Muslim faith), and one can hear the morning's Ezan. Muslim has songs similar to hymns that are also sung during this time while accompanied by live, traditional, Turkish instruments. The reading of the Qu'ran is perhaps my favorite to listen to, however. Imams train for years memorizing the entire Qu'ran. Because the original Qu'ran is in Arabic, reading it entails something between chanting and singing the verses. It is very difficult form of singing, and often uses komas (those notes in between notes found in Turkish music).
This is a beautiful reading of the Qu'ran by a young boy in training to be an Imam
http://youtu.be/SVanIauqirw
A beautiful tradition, and an experience that I am very thankful I am having, Ramadan continues to hold knowledge and surprises not only in terms of understanding the Muslim religion, but also for me personally.
Fun fact for the day, Chevy Chase was in a commercial for the Turkish cola, Cola Turka:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/5YsrKy2z2T8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUjuezFPyGE&feature=related
***The writings in this blog are based upon personal experience and research conducted about the country of Turkey and the Muslims therein.***
No comments:
Post a Comment