SASCHA WIL­SON

In keep­ing with COVID-19 re­stric­tions and guide­lines, two of the largest Mus­lim or­ga­ni­za­tions in the coun­try have ad­vised their mem­bers not to con­gre­gate at masjids dur­ing the holy month of Ra­madan.

Usu­al­ly, friends and fam­i­lies would gath­er dai­ly at their re­spec­tive masjids to end fast and pray, but in­stead, this will be done at their re­spec­tive homes.

The sight­ing of the cres­cent moon marks the start of Mus­lims’ month-long fast for Ra­madan.

Guardian Me­dia was told that the moon was ex­pect­ed to be sight­ed last night.

Trinidad Mus­lim League (TML) pres­i­dent Fraz Khan said, “This is a dif­fi­cult time for us in terms of the re­stric­tions and the rec­om­men­da­tions by the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) in place to re­duce the spread of COVID-19. We will com­ply with those guide­lines as it re­lates to so­cial dis­tanc­ing, re­duc­ing the num­ber of per­sons gath­ered. We un­der­stand that they are do­ing all those mea­sures to re­strict the spread.”

As a re­sult, he said there will be no large gath­er­ings to break their fast or the night­ly con­gre­ga­tion­al prayers at the var­i­ous mosques.

“To con­trol the spread of the virus with­in the pop­u­la­tion and in light of the gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tions, this is go­ing to be done at fam­i­lies’ homes and not col­lec­tive­ly un­til there is a change in the guide­lines. We are al­so look­ing at WHO guide­lines for Mus­lims dur­ing the holy month of Ra­madan. We are look­ing at the doc­u­ment to see if pos­si­ble to im­ple­ment some of those guide­lines.”

Shamshad Ali, sec­ond vice pres­i­dent of the An­ju­man Sun­nat ul Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion (AS­JA), said they are ask­ing peo­ple who con­tribute to­wards if­tar and din­ner to give the mon­ey to fam­i­lies to cook their food at home. “This is for Mus­lim and non-Mus­lim fam­i­lies be­cause dur­ing Ra­madan the mosques cater for the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty. We have 50 mosques through­out the coun­try af­fil­i­at­ed with AS­JA. We don’t dis­crim­i­nate.”

Dur­ing this holy month, he said, AS­JA al­so gives out ham­pers in the com­mu­ni­ties.

“For­tu­nate­ly or un­for­tu­nate­ly Ra­madan fell in this time (of COVID) so peo­ple will be get­ting ex­tra sup­port,” he said.

Ali said Mus­lims could use this time to strength­en fam­i­ly bonds. While Mus­lims are fac­ing a unique po­si­tion, he said Is­lam­ic the­ol­o­gy speaks to such a sit­u­a­tion.

“Prophet Muhammed said in the event of any epi­dem­ic to stay in place. If you are out of your nor­mal en­vi­ron­ment, stay where you are. If you are in your en­vi­ron­ment stay in place. No mat­ter where you are don’t at­tempt to cross bound­aries un­til such time that the epi­dem­ic or plague has sub­sided.”

If the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions are still in place for Eid ul Fitr, he said they will li­aise with the var­i­ous au­thor­i­ties to de­cide how alms will be giv­en out to the needy.

Usu­al­ly, peo­ple would gath­er at the var­i­ous mosques, but Ali said once the re­stric­tions are still in place that prac­tice will not be en­cour­aged.