Aurora Families Share Ramadan for All Faiths
September bustles with back-to-school activities and, for Muslim families celebrating Ramadan, it also means 30 days of praying and fasting and nights of feasting and socializing.
This year, Ramadan, the ninth lunar month of the Islamic calendar, began Aug. 22 in North America. It ends 30 days later, on Sept. 20.
Islamic tradition holds that the doors of heaven are thrown open to prayers during Ramadan, the month in which the Koran, the Muslim's Word of God, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
The door also is thrown open at the Multicultural Mosaic Foundation in Aurora, where 40 to 50 Turkish-American families share their culture, cuisine and Ramadan with diverse guests.
The Aurora-based foundation, established in 2003, is mostly a group of Turkish-Americans in their 20s to 40s, many of whom first came to the United States as students. Many have young children. The group is full of engineers, scientists and teachers.
"We're all having guests at our houses, or being somebody's guest, or having dinners here. We just get together to eat and be human. We're up later every night. It's hectic, but awesome," said Andrea Mikulin Topuz, whose 4-year-old son started school in the midst of all the activity.
While Ramadan is an especially busy time, the foundation hosts activities all year.
"It's hard to explain why we do all this," Mikulin Topuz said. "We want to create community and be part of something bigger than our individual selves. We also believe we need to get everyone in interfaith dialogue. To contribute positively to the image of Islam is critical. We try to be that moderate voice."
The nonprofit foundation, which has centers in most states, is dedicated to interfaith and intercultural dialogue and activities.
Its inspiration is Fethullah Gülen, a scholar of Islam who leads a movement with the stated aims of peace and tolerance, as well as an intellectual, spiritual and social revival of Islam.
"Ramadan is a time of sharing," said Ismail Akbulut, a foundation volunteer. "We try to get all kinds of people together to rebuild trust."
Last Tuesday, the foundation held a fast-breaking dinner at sunset, called an iftar, for a number of state legislators and people from some local Christian congregations.
"What I like about this group is that it is so welcoming to people of all faiths, without judging the other faiths," said dinner guest Sigrid Higdon, a Lakewood resident active with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado.
On Saturday night, the foundation invited members of the local Bosnian community. Tonight, the iftar honors the greater metro Turkish-American community.
During Ramadan, the fast from sunrise to sunset is meant to help the faithful redirect their hearts from worldly matters, foundation members explain. It cleanses the soul. It exercises self-discipline. It generates empathy for those less fortunate. It encourages charity. Fasting without contemplation is meaningless.
"There are those who abstain from eating and drinking and all they gain is hunger and thirst," Muhammad said.
During Ramadan, Muslims ask for guidance, purification and forgiveness.
"God is very merciful at this time, said Ismail Denirkan, president of the foundation's Colorado chapter.
When the fasts of Ramadan end, the foundation offers other activities. It reinstates its Turkish cooking classes, held every other Sunday.
The foundation hosts a series of speakers from many faiths and disciplines. It also organizes and funds a yearly trip to Turkey, where different faiths have been coexisting for centuries.
And each year, around the month of Muharram on the Islamic calendar, foundation volunteers prepare and distribute to various places of worship hundreds of servings of Noah's pudding, or ashure, a dessert of grain, nuts and fruits symbolic of Noah's first treat after the waters of the great flood receded.
Noah's pudding, arising as it does from a story common to the Abrahamic faiths of Jew, Christian and Muslim, Mikulin Topuz said, symbolizes the unity of humans to each other and to their Creator.
For more information about the foundation, visit mosaicfoundation.org.
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