Allan Appel Photo
Overflow worshipers at Masjid Al-Islam.
On the fifth day of Ramadan, a capacity crowd at Masjid Al-Islam couldn’t keep the faithful from the afternoon prayer. They simply unrolled their tan and red prayer rugs among the Nissans and Toyotas in the adjacent parking lot.
It was emblematic of the growth the West River masjid, or mosque, has been seeing recently.
Dr. Jimmy Jones, the masjid’s leader, said that more than 300 people attend the jumah, or Friday afternoon prayer, not only during the month-long period of Ramadan that began last week but throughout the year. That’s a significant increase in attendance, he said.
Matiniah Yahya & Jimmy Jones.
During Ramadan Muslims all over the world fast from sunrise to sunset, add on additional personal prayers or taraweeh to the five daily prayers, and use the practice to refocus their spiritual attention on bettering their character and their community
The flowing, multi-colored tunics, robes and caps of many of the attendees this past Friday reflected the dozens of nations from which the masjid’s worshipers hail. The nations include Bangladesh, Togo, Sudan, Pakistan, Jordan, and many others. That is in part due to the proximity of Yale, said Jones.
“The men have outgrown the building,” said Matiniah Yaya, Jones wife and sisterhood chair of Masjid Al-Islam. They pray on the bottom floor, the top floor, and the top of the education building, which is on the south side of the masjid’s compound of buildings on George Street.
Women pray separately in another building.
As calls of “Allah Hu Akbar” were piped into the parking lot, El Hadji Bello Nefiou, a native of Togo and 10-year resident of New Haven, manned the entry door and tried to cram latecomers in, if possible. He said he added Hadji to his name because he has fulfilled the Muslim obligation of making the pilgrimage to Mecca.
For him the fast has been a way of appreciating what he has. “The essence is to feel close to the poor” and to increase charity, he said.
While the essence of Muslim prayer, the reading of Koranic verses, is the same the world over, Nefiou said he misses certain of the African cultural aspects of the holiday. “From iftar to morning, people are singing,” said Nefiou
Iftar is the time of day post-sunset, his favorite part of Ramadan. In his native country people go singing from house to house to wake people up to come to the fajir, or pre-sunrise prayer.
Next week he’s returning to Togo for two months, where, he says Ramadan feels much more like a festive or Christmas-style holiday than it does in the U.S.
Ali Elbaset (left).
Friday night’s iftar was to be provided by Ali Elbaset, a native of Palestine who stopped to talk to Jimmy Jones and his wife Matiniah Yahha on the way in to prayer.
(Click here to read a story about last year’s iftar at the masjid, which featured dates, pizza, and fried chicken.)
Jones asked if Elbaset had enough foil pans to do the cooking. He did. Friday night’s break-fast meal would feature chicken with cauliflower and basmati rice and lentil soup.
Like almost everyone else a reporter spoke to, Elbaset, who has lived on Gilbert Street for 16 years, praised the effects of the fast without complaint, including its cardiac benefits.
“When I fast it’s good for my heart, and my Yale doctor told me to lose weight. But [the fasting] increases my feeling to the poor people.”
Elbaset said he is a regular at the five-times‑a day prayer on days other than Friday. On those prayer occasions there are about 30 worshipers at the masjid.
For Remidy, a member of Frontline Souljaz, a grassroots group working to turn around the lives of New Haveners on the edge of crime, fasting’s effect runs deep.
“We use this month to get closer to receive the blessings I count on. I ask God to give me strength and humbleness to deal with kids on the street. In my imperfections with young men, I ask God to give me more patience to understand these young men,” Remidy said.
And on a more personal, physical level, he is striving to utilize the restraint of Ramadan finally to give up smoking.
For women, jumah prayers were not obligatory, said Yayah. Still, she prayed with some 30 women in a separate building. “I’m trying to perfect my prayers,” she said. Her other focus is on her interfaith work. She is in the chaplain residency program at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Jimmy Jones said that new developments this year at the masjid, beside clearly increased and robust attendance, include high involvement of masjid personnel in the Muslim Endorsement Council of Connecticut and the Islamic Seminary Foundation. The former is setting standards for religious teachers and leaders, and the latter is training chaplains.
Jones was asked if he is troubled this Ramadan by recent news reports of people raising alarms about the supposed infiltration of Shariah law into American courtrooms.
“There is a small minority of people in this country who get up in the morning and try to make problems for Muslims. [But] Muslims have been [professionally, economically, and otherwise] so beneficial to this country, it really isn’t a problem,” he responded. “It’s a time to be thankful.”