Nora demarchi

 

 

 

This video is part of the policy of using television for educational purposes, in this case to popularize and spread the precepts and religious foundations of Islam through a comic genre such as operetta. Aimed at children and people who find reading difficult, the musical comedy explains one of the pillars of Islam, Ramadan karim.

 

Ramadan is the ninth lunar month of the Islamic calendar and has an enormous importance in Muslim societies, its arrival eagerly awaited. The Qur'an specifies that Ramadan is a period of fasting – during the whole month no liquid or solid food must be taken (that includes smoking), between the moment one can distinguish a white thread from a black one, and sunset. Sexual relations are also prohibited during this time. After sunset these prohibitions no longer apply. Obligatory fasting is the fourth of the Five Pillars of Islam, the others being the proclamation that there is only one God (shahada), prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat) and pilgrimage (hajj).

 

Since Ramadan, based on the lunar calendar, falls at different times of the solar year, the obligation to fast is more or less difficult according to the season in which it occurs. It is also a time when Muslims try particularly hard to fulfil other religious obligations and refrain from any harmful act. The whole month is particularly sacred, but the night of the twenty-seventh day of Ramadan is considered especially holy because according to tradition it was during this “night of the decision” the Qur'ran was first revealed.

 

Muslims are proud to bear the hardships of the fast and assume them willingly. Children and adolescents take part as soon as they can. The sick, travellers, pregnant women, nursing mothers or those who are menstruating are exempt, but they are recommended to compensate for the non-observed days by fasting later.

 

The fast also has a strong community dimension. More than at any other time of year, Ramadan brings Muslims together and makes them feel part of a wider community. The end of the fast every evening is often celebrated as a community event, deepening and strengthening social relationships.

 

Today the spread of the Qur'an's message to young children is often done through books, animated films and across a wide variety of web-sites where, accompanied by their parents, kids can become familiar with the precepts of the Qur'an and basics of Islam.

 

Wagtendonk, K. 1968: Fasting in the Coran, Leiden, Brill.

Dov Goitein, S. 1966: Studies in Islamic History and istitutions, Leiden, Brill.

Ben Jelloun, T. 2002 : L’islam expliqué aux enfants, Paris : Seuil.