Muslims around the world celebrate their holy month Ramadan from May 5 to June 4 - and the Armidale community are invited to join them for dinner on Thursday.
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The International Muslim Students Association (IMSA) and UNE Life will host a Ramadan-themed Autumn Fest at Booloominbah Hall on Thursday, May 23.
"I want people to turn up," UNE Mosque Management Association (UMMA) president Rami Bahnas said. "I want them to have some of our food; I want them to enjoy it; and get to know someone from our community. To us, we're one, and we want them to feel that way, too."
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Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year, during which Muslims celebrate the revelation of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad in Mecca.
It is a time of purification and spiritual reflection, but also of community. From sunrise to sunset, most adult and teenage Muslims must fast, and avoid sinful speech or behaviour, and sexual relations - but break the fast each evening with a lavish dinner.
"This is a good chance for getting together," former UMMA president Hussein Megahed said. "People keep closer to each other; it should be like this all the time, but if you don't have time during the year, at least during Ramadan, we get together every night."
Muslims break fast at about 5pm, followed by prayer at 5.30. On Thursday night, two films will be screened: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005 adaptation of Douglas Adam's radio play / novel / towel) at 6pm, and the Australian movie Lion at 8pm. Booloominbah will be spotlit, and there will be a jumping castle for the children. IMSA will serve food from 6.15pm, including curries, salads, rice pilafs, breads, and dessert. All is free.
This is the first time the university will hold a Ramadan event - but not, UNELife's Tania Court and Ben Bible hope, their last.
"There are so many beautiful messages in Ramadan around being a better human," Ms Court said. Mr Bible looks forward to exposing domestic students to the Muslims' sense of community.
For Mr Megahed, Ramadan is both religious and healthy.
"I do it to obey God, like praying or charity," he said. "But when you fast, you really know how poor people feel, when you're not able to eat for so many hours. Even though I'm doing it by choice, other people do it because they can't afford it."
This fasting (sawm) is one of the five pillars of Islam, with the profession of faith (shahadah), praying five times a day (salat), paying an alms tax to the poor (zakat), and pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).
Muslims send the money they don't spend on meals to poor people; they can help someone to get married, pay medical bills, or build a house.
"It's a way of feeling for others," Mr Megahed said. Fasting also, he explains, clears the system; "it gives the machine a break."
Every night during Ramadan, many of New England's Muslims - including from Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Indonesia, and some Australian converts - gather at the UNE mosque to pray and break their fast together.
"For us," Mr Bahnas said, "Ramadan is all about gathering, doing charity work, and meeting people. It's a chance for us to connect with our community, and with the wider community."
The community's weekly big celebration is on Saturday night at Lazenby Hall. Several hundred people - men, women, and children - packed the building last week.
"I bought 500 spoons," Mr Bahnas said. "I'm worried they're going to run out!"
Numbers will swell in the lead-up to Eid-al-fitr, the end of Ramadan, on Tuesday, June 4.
"Everyone gives a hand," Mr Megahed said; "it doesn't matter if they're uni teachers, students, or from the local community."
The wider Armidale community is welcome to join the Muslims at these dinners as well. The mosque is always open 24 hours, too, to Muslim and non-Muslim alike, with food, tea, and coffee.
"We are really one," Mr Megahed said. "It doesn't matter where you're from, what religion, what colour, what language; we're all one. But in Ramadan, we get a chance to show it more to the community."