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Ramadan is a special time for Muslims, being the most sacred month of the year.
FEED THE POOR
Feeding the poor and needy is an act that draws us closer to Allah. We earn His forgiveness, mercies and blessings through this act of charity.
“Anyone who looks after and works for a widow and a poor person is like a warrior fighting for Allah?s cause, or like a person who fasts during the day and prays all night. (Bukhari)
As Ramadan starts, Muslims usually take the holy month as a chance to see friends and family and share iftar meals or join hundreds in taraweeh prayers.
However, under the coronavirus shutdown this year, many expect a somber Ramadan where all these festivities will disappear.
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In Ottawa, and as mosques remain shut, Muslims will not fill any of Ottawa’s mosques for taraweeh prayer.
“I’ve never seen any (mosque) closing down,” said Jalil Marhnouj, the president of the Assunnah Muslims Association (AMA) board, which runs the AMA Community Centre and the Mosque of Mercy on Hunt Club Road, Capital Current reported.
“This is really very, very sad.”
Marhnouj added that for some people, especially elderly
citizens, the mosque prayer is their daily life routine and social life.
“Some people have been going to the (mosque) for as long as
it has been open. And now they can’t,” he said.
“It’s taking something away from them,” Marhnouj said.
Preventing Virus Spread
Asma Amjad, an Ottawa doctor and vice president of the
Muslim Medical Association of Canada, said the mosque closures were part of a
plan to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We as responsible citizens, responsible Muslims, we have to
abide by these rules,” she said. “One thing we know for sure is that social
distancing and quarantine helps.”
Yet, some Ottawa Muslims still cannot imagine Ramadan
without taraweeh and family iftars.
“Not being able to do that potentially, I’m like, ‘yikes,’” Iesha-Aminata Camara, a Muslim neuroscience student at Carleton University, said.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has infected 1,349,889 and killed
around 74,820 people, according to the latest estimates by WorldOMeter.
Canada is grappling with over
16,000 confirmed cases of the new virus. The country has reported 323 deaths
so far.
Read Original Report Here By About Islam