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In an awe-aspiring scene, thousands of Muslims huddled together at Paris mosques praying devoutly and supplicating heartily on Laylat Al-Qadr, the most virtuous night which Muslims worldwide observed on Monday, October 8, the 26th day of Ramadan.

"We spent the night praying and supplicating to God," Anis, 30 said.

"It is not like other nights," he added energetically.

"The heavens are open to prayers than on other nights."

Laylat Al-Qadr (the night of the power) is the most virtuous night in the whole year for Muslims as the first verses of Quran were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

It falls on the last ten days of Ramadan and is better than a thousand months.

Several Muslim scholars believe it is the 27th night of Ramadan as mentioned in the Prophetic hadiths.

It is customary for Muslims during the last ten days of Ramadan to spend most of the day studying the Quran and perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat in mosques).

The good deeds of the faithful in Laylat Al-Qadr are highly rewarded.

"It crowns our celebration of Ramadan," said Rauf, 23, holding a French translation of the meaning of the Quran.

The Villepinte Mosque in northern Paris was bursting at the seams with worshipers, many of whom had to pray in the open.

"It is a phenomenon that mosques nowadays are teeming with young Muslims," Sheikh Fargani Dakhman, the mosque's imam said.

"They come here to pray devoutly, hoping that God would accept their prayers, supplication and supererogatory acts."

He said many worshipers prayed late into the night.

"They performed late night prayers until Fajr (dawn), read the Quran and mentioned God a lot," added Dakhman.

Other mosques were also complete on Laylat Al-Qadr like Al-Fath Mosque in Paris's 18th district and Khaled Ibn Al-Walid Mosque with latecomers having to pray in the streets under electricity pylons.

French Muslims' complaints of lacking stately and spacious mosques to accommodate the faithful becomes self-evident during Ramadan and `Eid when worshipers are forced to pray outside in the streets.

Muslims have only 1,500 prayer houses, most of which housed in small, modest halls, often described as "basement mosques."

France is home to some 5-6 million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.

Ramadan Quality Time for UK Family ^*

It's about six o' clock in the afternoon, nearly one hour before iftar, and Sayyed Mahdi Belyani is hurrying to pick up his wife and one-and-a-half-year daughter and join other Muslims at the mosque. "It's about time," he says while rushing out of the restaurant he owns in a central London neighborhood.

It has been the custom for Belyani, who came to Britain from his homeland Iran 20 years ago, to join the Muslim community iftar banquets at the mosque.

"It's my sixth year on to join community iftar," he added.

After iftar and prayers, it is usually time to listen to the sermon of sheikh Ansari, who comes from Iran every year to observe Ramadan with a Muslim community eager to listen to his sermons explaining the verses of the Noble Quran.

"Last year he explained the meanings of surat Yusuf," Belyani recalls. "This year he will explain surat Al-Kahf."

Belyani impatiently awaits Ramadan every year for times like these; when he sets himself free from the pressures of daily life in a fast moving city to dedicate quality time for learning more about his faith.

"That's what makes Ramadan a really special time for me," he explained.

They attend the Tarawih special prayers in mosque and read more regularly from their holy book, the Quran.

Bonding  

But it's not just mosque visits that lights up Ramadan nights for Belyani's family.

For them, the holy month is time to get closer to relatives and friends.

"During the year, we usually do not have the opportunity to see each other as we do during Ramadan," Belayni said.

"This month brings everyone together."

The 41-year-old father usually spends the time after returning from the mosque at his restaurant along with his wife Lu, who embraced Islam nearly seven years ago, and members of their extended family.

Mohamed, Belyani's cousin and partner in the halal food restaurant, usually joins the night gathering. Other relatives and friends are always around.

The family enjoys gathering for sahur meal before fasting, as well as praying and worshiping.

Lu said that while the first day of Ramadan is always booked for mosque community iftar, it is also a custom for the family to break their fast together at the house of Belyani's sister.

"We usually skip the mosque community iftar one day during the first week of Ramadan to join his sister's banquet."

Belyani noted that this year's Ramadan even brought all Muslims in Britain together as all communities observed the beginning of the holy month on the same day.

"One year we celebrated the start of Ramadan on four different days," he recalled bitterly.

"This year it was a bless that all communities have agreed on the same day to begin the holy month."

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2 million, mostly from Pakistani, Indian and Bengali backgrounds.

First Ramadan  

Lu, 24, will always remember her first Ramadan.

The Chinese-origin revert admits that the experiment was not an easy one, with no previous experience in fasting.

"The toughest thing for me was to learn all the details of my newly-found faith that any born Muslims know by heart," she recalled.

Lu, who was still studying business administration at the university when she embraced Islam, found some difficulties along the way.

"Going without water the whole day was the hardest part of the fasting for me."

And what made it even harder was the difficulty in explaining why she is fasting to her conservative Christian family.

Initially, her father and mother did not understand the need to fast, but her strong determination eventually made them respect her decision and even support her in fulfilling her religious duty to her best ability.

"On our last visit to my parents' house, my mother made sure that every ingredient in the meal she cooked for us was halal," said a jubilant Lu.

She enjoys support from the Muslim community in the neighborhood.

"But the best support for me was my husband who helped me to adjust my daily routine to the duty of fasting and tried hard to explain all the aspects I did not understand as born Muslims do," said Lu.

Ramadan: Brought to You by Burger King ^*

One of the best things about Ramadan in America is that it is still under-the-radar. After all, it doesn't take long for entrepreneurs to realize the commercial potential around religious holidays, as the "holiday season" can attest to. And even as Ramadan's visibility increases, it would seem odd that a religious holiday centered around self-restraint and denial of impulse could be seen as an opportunity to promote consumerism. 

But in some parts of the Muslim world, that's exactly what is happening. There are indeed aspects of Ramadan that involve consumption--gifts for children at the end of the month, dressing up for the Eid holiday in your finest clothes, and of course going out for dinner during the month--and which open the door for enterprising business to move it. Hence advertising like this Ramadan greetings ad from Burger King, which implies that you should be breaking your fast with a Whopper.

So what happens when you combine Ramadan with rampant commercialism? In some places, a holiday of introspection and self-restraint becomes a shop all night affair. Instead of filling the evening with prayer, the malls are open all night with a shopping frenzy very similar to the Western holiday season. Huge sponsored Ramadan tents are erected that that combine dinner with shopping and promotions. The restraint of fasting during the day is offset by a public feeding frenzy. And the solemnity of Ramadan is turned into a joke.

This kind of commercialization is starting to happen here in America as well, albeit slowly. I remember my jaw dropping when I got an Eid card from AT&T offering special rates for calling overseas relatives to wish them Eid Mubarak (blessed Eid). But aside from a few isolated examples such as this, American businesses are still reluctant to court Muslim purchasing power, even though a recent study pegged the total at $170 billion a year in the US alone.

The creeping commercialization of Ramadan in the Muslim world gives me pause, but I am hopeful that, because we are in the early stages of defining Ramadan in its American incarnation, we can head that off. It would take a concerted effort to solidify the practice of Ramadan in America based values such as charity, reflection, and self-restraint -- values that don't easily lend themselves to opportunistic advertising. If Muslim Americans are successful in doing this, perhaps it can offer an example of how other religious holidays can be reclaimed from the marketplace.

Shahed Amanullah, a frequent Beliefnet contributor, is one of the countryÕs foremost Muslim journalists. He has harnessed the power of the Internet to spread a positive view of Islam. Amanullah is the editor of altmuslim.com, a Muslim news website, and founder of Halalfire Media, a network of Muslim-themed websites with more than five million annual visitors. Through his work Amanullah has tapped into a strong force of online activism. He lives in Texas with his wife and two sons, and looks forward to the spiritual rewards of Ramadan every year. 
 

Ramadan Event in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi's Ramadan and Eid Festival, organised by Al Multaqa Exhibitions, has opened at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. The show, which encompasses all seven of the centre's exhibition halls, will continue until October 13 and around 100,000 visitors are expected to attend. Opening hours are 8pm until 3am daily.

French Ramadan About Solidarity

The holy fasting month of Ramadan in France is all about solidarity and fraternity. "Muslims are racing to help underprivileged Muslims in France and overseas during Ramadan," Mohammed Hanish, the secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organizations in Saint Denis, told IslamOnline.

Shops are offering milk and dates for iftar meals prepared by mosques while butchers are donating halal meat.

"Charities are also raising money for the poor and needy after Tarawih prayers in the mosque," added Hanish.

"Ramadan is a month for giving," said Tohami, the owner of a halal-meat shop in Aubervilliers city.

French Muslims say feeding the poor is the core of the solidarity spirit of Ramadan.

"My mum sends a plate of delicious couscous (hard-wheat semolina) and other dishes to the keeper of the nearby mosque every other day," says Emad, 16.

Mosques in France have decided to open up their doors for the homeless to share iftar meals during the holy fasting month.

Posters encouraging Muslims to donate for the poor are up everywhere in Muslim-populated Parisian suburbs.

"Love God, Help the Poor" and "Donate to the Needy in Ramadan" are but few of the posters coloring the streets and shops.

These set aside, a Muslim resident of Paris reports to Islamonline;

"The sacred month of Ramadan in France does not have the special touch it has in Muslim countries, but we all try to make it special in our lives. There are no fanous (special lanterns) in the streets, and schools do not have a special program for Ramadan, except the few Muslim schools that have been set in the last few years. It is the parents' responsibility to educate their children and teach them the virtues and benefits of Ramadan. For Muslim children at school, fasting is an honor that distinguishes them in mental and physical strength from their non-Muslim schoolmates (at least that is what we used to say when we were children!).  

Ramadan is more and more accepted in public schools in France, and some teachers now accept the idea that Muslim children spend `Eid Al-Fitr (feast following Ramadan) with their families instead of distractedly attending school on that same day. In some Muslim-majority districts, the whole place takes a Ramadan-like appearance, with restaurants and shops selling sweets during the day in preparation for the iftar (meal breaking the fast) and serving traditional North-African iftar when maghrib (sunset and time for breaking the fast) time comes. Chorba frik, harira, bricks, and tajines are the typical dishes served in areas like Barbès, Belleville, and Saint Denis.

 Supermarkets seem to have found a financially advantageous answer to this question and have taken into account what they call the "specificity" of the Muslim community, by selling halal foods and sweets, and Islamic books in a fair-like area of their malls. It seems that commercial interests are here more important than the so-called laicism France has been keen on in the past few years. Orientalists and party-organizers have also found their own business during Ramadan, by instating what they call "Ramadan nights," where they have singers and dancers parade in a disco-like atmosphere, as if this kind of unacceptable events were part of the Ramadan rituals."

Ramadan Baskets bond Canadian Muslims

Canadian Muslims are capitalizing on the spirit of the holy fasting month of Ramadan to foster unity and good relations within the community, volunteering to offer food baskets to the needy and low-income families.

"This year, we are aiming to prepare 300 food baskets," Samina Uddin, a resident of Pakistani origin, told the Montreal Gazette, while piling up boxes of groceries in her home garage.

For the past 14 years Uddin and a group of volunteers in the small Dollard-des-Ormeaux town have been providing food baskets for the poor during the dawn-to-dusk fasting month.

They receive supplies and donations from the Muslim community all over Montreal in the southern Quebec province.

Later on, food basics, like pasta, rice, flour and vegetables, are stocked in boxes ready for delivery.

"This is a community thing, you have to see it when you come here" said Uddin.

"Younger people, older people, everybody gets involved and they get involved in their own capacity and they are happy about whatever they are donating, and that's what I like.

Sarah Khan, a 16-year-old high school student, is very enthusiastic about the project.

"I think it's a really good cause because not everyone is as privileged as we are," she explained.

"In our house, we have a lot of dishes to choose from, these people, they don't have much to choose from at all. It makes me feel good to know that they are getting the essentials everyone should have."

Finding Ramadan in Sweden

The first sight of Ramadan was at the Stockholm underground with an ad featuring a mosque and offering extra mobile rings for Muslims during the holy month. A short metro ride takes one to the picturesque Sheikh Zayed Mosque, the only stately mosque in Stockholm.

With its unique dome and crescent minaret, the mosque is the meeting point for Muslims from across the ethnic spectrum.

A series of glossy Islamic calendars, in Arabic and Swedish, are the first thing to be spotted when entering the mosque.

Others carry Quranic verses and hadith encouraging the faithful to pay their zakat (alms) as early as possible to the needy and the poor.

After breaking their fast on dates and milk, Muslims converge for the Maghreb prayer.

They then head for the mosque restaurant to have their iftar meals in a family-like atmosphere.

Sheikh Zayed Mosque is the main Islamic center in Sweden and liaises with authorities on behalf of Muslims.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt visited the mosque earlier this month for a meeting with Muslim leaders to defuse the crisis of an anti-prophet cartoon published in the local Nerikes Allehanda newspaper.

The crisis has prompted many Swedes to know more about Islam with several media outlets giving unprecedented coverage for Muslim affairs and high schools introducing optional know-Islam lessons.

"At first glance, visitors might think Islam has no place in Stockholm," said Yassin, a mosque-goer.

"Islam is slowly, but confidently, growing here."