Allan Appel Photo
At precisely 7:58 p.m. Adrian Ashir Kirk took his first sip of water since before sunrise. The cupful of Polar Arctic was so delicious, it made him raise his eyebrows in appreciation.
Then he feasted on a single large Medjool date and offered a brief evening prayer before laying into some more serious food for iftar, the full fast-ending meal.
Kirk joined about two dozen fellow Muslims Saturday night at the Masjid Al-Islam on George Street, where he and others will continue to break their rigorous fasts communally during the month-long celebration of Ramadan, with prayers and the iftar evening meal, for 27 more days.
While the date comes out of the prophetic writings of Islam, what do Muslims in New Haven eat for iftar after a long day of fasting?
Well, pizza, of course.
In this instance from Aladdin Crown Pizza on Crown Street, along with rice and fried chicken, and whatever else community members were able to bring in..
Muslims are challenged during Ramadan to use sunrise-to-sunset fasting — along with the restraining from sexual activity and increased acts of self-discipline and charity — to attain a more elevated spiritual state.
“When you fast, everything tastes good, and all food is appetizing,” said Kirk
Ashir Kirk serves as the assistant to Dr. Jimmy Jones, the leader of the masjid. He gives private lessons in Arabic and is organizing an Arabic language after-school program.
In order to eat before the sunrise Saturday, he had risen at 4 a.m.. He had a small bowl of cereal, two small waffles, some eggs and juice.
He and his six younger siblings then made their ritual ablutions and were praying the first of the required five daily prayers by 5:15.
He went back to sleep until 10.
The midday prayer took place at 1:10 p.m. and then another prayer at 5:15. Those Kirk prayed at his parents’ house on Gilbert Street near the masjid.
It wasn’t the most spiritual of days, said Kirk. He had to spend a lot of time keeping up the spirits of a sister-in-law who was going through some personal difficulties. Such acts of caring for others and disciplining the self are in fact at the heart of Ramadan.
The part of Ramadan Kirk liked best was the communal meal Saturday night, when people reconnected to the masjid and talked over the foodwhile often new faces appeared.
Faces such as Munjed Murad’s.
A native Jordanian, Murad (pictured with the pizza in foreground) recently finished college at George Washington University. He has just begun his studies at Yale’s School of Forestry. Since he had arrived in town a little early and other students were not around, the Yale Muslim chaplain suggested Murad come by the masjid for iftar.
“Some people actually gain weight in Ramadan because each night can be like Christmas eve,” Murad said. Murad had broken the fast alone the first two nights and was enjoying the masjid’s company.
After his pizza, his dessert of seven small grapes expressed the moderation that is also the heart of Ramadan.
“And much of Islam,” added Ashir.
“Emptying the stomach, filling the soul,” said Murad paraphrasing an Islamic text..
As Jimmy Jones (right in photo, with Murad) joined the table, Murad had to leave. They exchanged contact information. He congratulated Ashir Kirk on his “beautiful recitation” of the Koran.
Ashir spent four years in Syria and six in Morocco pursuing Islamic studies including “tajweed,” the science of Koranic recitation.
Chicago born and Hartford and New Haven raised, he had returned after ten years away only last year to assist Jones at the masjid..
Jones’ take on Ramadan and the fast: “For me its’ about attitude adjustment. I spend 11 months putting my material needs first.”
Unlike on major Christian and Jewish holidays, sermons aren’t a focus of the gatherings at , the masjid during Ramadan.
Jones said that a preacher’s sermons pale against the centrality of the word of God in the Koran, which is the essence of the five daily prayers in Islam.
That five-prayer‑a day normalcy is heightened during Ramadan, which Jones called the month of the Koran. Not only the five daily prayers with Koranic excerpts at their core are recited, but additional chapters as well.
These are taraweeh, or voluntary personal prayers, each including a chapter a night of the Koran’s 30 chapters so that by the end of Ramadan, the whole has been recited.
How does all that reading of the word of God as viewed by Muslims help when Muslims are portrayed by some Americans as an alien and threatening group not worthy in the eyes of some to have a mosque near Ground Zero?
“If you’re connected to the Koran, your belief in the oneness of God, then what people say and do to you doesn’t matter so much,” Jones said.
Iftar broke up after an hour’s communal meal. At 9:30 Ashir Kirk then helped clean up, and led those who remained in isha, the day’s fifth obligatory prayer.
Then there was more prayer.
At 10:45 he and a smaller group performed the voluntary taraweeh prayers. Then he went home. He’d rise again at four in the morning for the next fast day of Ramadan.