The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is set to begin on Thursday night with the sighting of the crescent moon. Attendance at ceremonial openings will be restricted and televised for the world's 1.8 billion Muslims.
Lockdown and social distancing during Ramadan, a time of family and communal gatherings, is particularly painful. Muslims of the same gender embrace when meeting.
Post-sunset breakfasts with family and friends are the height of the year’s social life and heavily attended mosque prayers not only promote communal well-being but also are considered to have special spiritual significance.
To promote compliance with anti-coronavirus measures, the three holiest mosques in the Muslim world in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem remain shut. Most Muslim governments have ordered citizens to remain at home and closed markets and public places as well as places of worship.
Abstain
When lockdown measures are challenged by critical clerics, politicians and shopkeepers, the authorities might well remind them that the Prophet Muhammad encountered plague outbreaks 1,400 years ago and adopted the same measures widely imposed today.
He decreed, “If you hear of an outbreak of a plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.” He ordered followers to cover their faces when sneezing, quarantined those who were ill within a walled compound, and prescribed frequent handwashing.
As Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, he told Muslims to abstain from food and drink between dawn and sunset as long as fasting did not endanger their health.
During the coronavirus crisis, his edict has been echoed by al-Azhar in Cairo, the Sunni seat of learning, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader who is seen as an authority by Shias. Some dissident scholars argue fasting could weaken Muslims, making them susceptible to coronavirus, also known as Covid-19.
For some, lockdown might promote the spiritual over the social aspects of Ramadan but for most, confinement will destroy Ramadan’s joyful mood and engender uncertainty and fear. Curfews have been relaxed in some countries to permit shops to open for longer hours so families can buy groceries or gifts of clothing given during Ramadan.
Clerics in Pakistan have defied government guidelines and allowed congregational prayers if social distancing is observed.
While coronavirus-driven economic pressures may force wealthy and middle-class families to celebrate more modestly than usual, Ramadan is certain to be a time of acute distress and privation for millions whose poverty has deepened after jobs disappeared.
To alleviate misery, governments, mosques and charities have already begun to deliver meals to the needy, compensating for charity meals served in neighbourhood streets or at mosques.
Banned
The coronavirus pandemic has forced Muslim societies to suspend some distinctive Ramadan traditions. Egyptians banned from leaving home have already hung Ramadan lanterns, symbols of hope, in many colours, shapes and sizes from their balconies or even strung them on wires across narrow streets.
Municipalities could ban drummers who roam cities and towns to wake the faithful for the pre-dawn meal. Ramadan tents where people meet to eat and smoke water pipes have been folded away until next year. Visits to family graves will be postponed and seniors living apart from children kept isolated to prevent infection.
Millions will watch televised religious services, soaps and musical performances. Families with computers, tablets and smartphones will hold virtual gatherings online.
Cash-strapped families have had to invest in surgical masks and gloves and sanitisers as well as non-perishable food items to tide them over during lockdown. Consequently, households will reduce or cut special Ramadan fare featuring expensive meat, poultry and fish and rely on bean, lentil and vegetable stews.
Besieged by Covid-19, Muslims hope isolation and distancing will end before May 23rd, allowing them to join together to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the three-day festival that ends the fast.
