Three times a week, hundreds have gathered around sundown at the Islamic Center of Western Pennsylvania in Marshall to celebrate and break their fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Fasting during Ramadan, which happens to align with the month of March this year, is one of the five pillars of Islam. During daylight hours, Muslims do not eat or drink, but often come together in the evening for iftar, the meal consumed after sunset.
Mohamed Yacoub, imam of the ICWP, said about 350 members of his congregation have come out during Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for iftar throughout the month to pray and spend time among the community.
That community, Yacoub said, has steadily grown since the mosque was founded in 2019, to around 500, with people from nearly every continent. But during Ramadan, with its common traditions and significance, Yacoub said he can see the “beauty of unity” among his congregation.
“It’s beautiful. You see all colors, you hear all languages, you shake peoples’ hands, you smile at their faces,” he said. “It’s this moment of exchanging the beauty of Islam and the beauty of humanity as well.”
To feed the several hundred attendees, Yacoub said various members of the community sponsor events and provide food for the congregation. On March 21, the iftar meal was Bangladeshi food. Other meals have featured foods from a variety of world cuisines, said Sarmad Ashfaq, a board member of the mosque.
Ashfaq said attendance at iftar meals has grown considerably since last Ramadan, causing the mosque to use both floors of its building to house and feed the congregation. But even with an enlarged group, he said Ramadan offers a “sense of oneness in the community.”
Ashfaq’s wife, Toni, said though the whole group is like one large family, the month also is an important time for individual families to come together.
Each year, she said, she and her children set goals for Ramadan and give up certain things. It also is a family tradition to fill 30 balloons with candy for her children to pop after sundown on each day of the month.
Her goals this year are to finish the Quran as well as a sirah, a biography of the Prophet Muhammad. The end of Ramadan, Toni said, is always “bittersweet” because the last 10 days — especially holy to Muslims — offer a “peace and tranquility” that is sometimes hard to find during the rest of the year.
On a visit with several of his peers from the Community College of Allegheny County, 21-year-old Mukhammed Mamat said the iftar meal was “delicious” and the congregation was inviting.
Though the ICWP is not the mosque he regularly attends, Mamat said he hopes to return later.
“Everyone is so friendly, so welcoming. The environment is such a good feeling,” he said.
A Franklin Park resident, Ishita Rahman said the CCAC students were not the only ones to visit the mosque during Ramadan. The ICWP also hosted Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, a member of a Jewish coalition and a Christian pastor as well.
The month, she said, is a time for “self-reflection” and “discipline.” Though adjusting to the new regimen is difficult at first, Rahman said days during the month become a lot freer to devote to religion and spend with family without tasks such as cooking, eating, shopping and cleaning.
In the final days of Ramadan, she said, she also plans to attend the voluntary tahajjud prayers, which take place around 3:30 a.m. After that prayer in the pre-dawn hours, many Muslims also will consume a smaller meal called suhoor for energy throughout the day.
At the ICWP, Yacoub said the congregation also participated in friendly competitions such as memorization of the Quran and hadith, sayings and stories of the Prophet Muhammad, and the 99 names of God in Islam. Plus, Yacoub said his congregation created Ramadan-themed art to be displayed on the walls of the mosque.
At the conclusion of the month, Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which is a “moment of joy and happiness,” said Yacoub.
This year, for the first time, the ICWP will hold its Eid celebrations at Pine-Richland High School in collaboration with Pine’s Muslim Association of Greater Pittsburgh. There, activities will be available for children in addition to various food vendors.
Eid begins at sundown on March 30.