MY EXPERIENCE: I fasted for a day before enjoying iftar at a mosque

It all started last week, when we had one of our daily morning meetings, my colleague Shuiab mentioned an event on Saturday evening at Masjid Al-Momineen Mosque, Blackburn an invite for those who do not observe Islam to enjoy iftar and asked if anybody wanted to go.

I thought it sounded like a lovely idea to bring the people of Blackburn together and quickly accepted the invite and thought it would be great to share my experience. 

As I reflected on it and while I was reading stories from One Voice Blackburn about those who are not Muslim but are fasting for a day, I thought it would be even more special to fast myself and break my fast surrounded by others who were fasting for the month.

Masjid Al-Momineen Mosque on Ash Street, Blackburn (Image: Google)

When my alarm went off at 4am to make myself some food, I opted to stay in bed meaning by the time my next alarm went off a couple of hours later, I was not able to eat or drink anything.

I don’t normally have breakfast so this was not too odd to me but I did really start to feel it at about 10am when I would normally have a coffee and a piece of fruit or something just to tide me over until lunch (and my partner cooking himself some breakfast at that time certainly didn’t help).

It was hard, especially when it felt like every time I looked at my phone I was shown a food video but for me, the most difficult part was the thirst, I have a feeling would have been able to get over being hungry if I was able to have a drink.

At about 2pm, the headache arrived, a dehydration one I would imagine - Shuiab had warned me this would happen.

I battled through, thinking at times I might break and end up having some water but the headache did start to disappear and by 6pm, I felt okay again.

I got myself ready and headed to Ash Street to the Masjid Al-Momineen Mosque – the reception could not have been warmer.

The event was being held in a marquee on the road by the mosque and when I arrived, everyone was so welcoming.

It was amazing to see how many people who are not Muslims were at the event.

I got talking to some people on my table who told me it was their colleague's mosque which inspired them to come down.

Iman Ul Hasan welcomed everyone to the event and explained what Ramadan is all about – peace, helping others and feeling closer to Allah.

The table was filled about 10 minutes before sundown - I must say the smell of all of this food was very tempting (Image: Lancashire Telegraph)

Also there was Mayor Suleman Khonat who thanked the mosque for hosting the event.

Shuiab, who also popped in at the event, introduced me to a lot of people there who kept coming to speak to me which was lovely as someone who came to the event alone.

At 7.48pm, we broke out fast with water and a medjool date.

There were also bhajis, samosas, sandwiches, salad and so much more.

The lamb curry and rice was fantastic - a little spicy for me but packed with flavour (Image: Lancashire Telegraph)

After a few minutes, we were asked if we wanted to observe the Ramadan prayer which I did and it was a very humbling experience.

After this, we sat back down and the mains arrived, fried chicken drum sticks, rice and a lamb curry which was fantastic – maybe a little too spicy for me but it was packed with flavour.

Pudding for me consisted of a passionfruit cheesecake, melon and some kiwi fruit and an Indian tea.

For pudding, I chose a cheesecake, melon and kiwi (Image: Lancashire Telegraph)

There was loads more on offer though, chocolate brownies, cookies and trifle.

I definitely didn’t go away hungry – there was a generous amount of food and everything I had was lovely.

My one day seems miniscule in comparison to what those observing Ramadan do every year and I have a real respect for everyone who observes the Holy Month.

Breaking my fast surrounded by so many people was amazing, seeing how this month brings people together and everyone was so welcoming.

The whole day and evening were a very humbling experience, if you get the chance to go to one of these events and want to know what Ramadan is all about, I would absolutely recommend it.