Valley Mosque Gives Muslims Peace of Mind at Ramadan

At the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan nearly one year ago, the nearly finished, $2.2-million mosque overlooking the Ronald Reagan Freeway faced construction delays and mounting bills.

Later, at the end of Ramadan, a cold rain soaked hundreds of Muslims attending open-air prayers at Cal State Northridge.

But as Muslims prepare for another Ramadan, expected to start Wednesday, supporters of the new mosque--the largest in the San Fernando Valley--are enjoying brighter times:

* “It was nervous time at the start of this year, but we have been able to pay almost all of the construction bills and a good proportion of the loans,” said mosque spokesman Mahmood Qureshi, who is also a professor of accounting and information systems at Cal State Northridge. “The [Muslim] community has responded very generously.”

* The mosque, which opened officially in March, usually has been able to keep its attendance down to the city-prescribed level of about 250 worshipers by holding community prayers at both the new location and its original building on Tampa Avenue in Northridge, Qureshi said.

* A full-time imam, or religious leader, took up residence on the mosque property and has been leading prayers since August at the facility, which is officially the Islamic Center of Northridge, although many informally call the new building the Granada Hills Mosque.

The multilingual Imam Qazi Fazlullah, who gives his sermons in English, was serving in the Parliament of his native Pakistan in November 1996 when the legislative body was dissolved by President Farooq Leghari.

Between 1993 and 1996, Fazlullah had come to Northern California three months each year to work as a religious teacher at a mosque in Lodi, where he has many relatives. With his political career at least temporarily in abeyance, he received offers in this country to serve as a full-fledged imam.

Fazlullah, 45, who is married and has seven children, said he accepted the offer from the Islamic Center of Northridge for several reasons. For one, the mosque in Granada Hills is only the third in Southern California to be constructed as a mosque, or masjid in Arabic, and, for another, the membership is well-educated, he said.

Their educational level notwithstanding, Muslims who come to the mosque during Islam’s holiest month of the year “need to be reminded that Islam literally means total surrender to God Almighty and that they are duty-bound to fast,” Fazlullah said.

All able-bodied Muslims are expected to abstain from food, drink and sex during daylight hours through the entire lunar month. Pregnant women, the elderly and the ailing are excused.

But the reflective, self-disciplined period is also a time of increased prayer and charity. Muslims are expected to say prayers five times daily, but a sixth opportunity is offered during Ramadan.

Each night at 7:30 during Ramadan, the imam will recite a portion of the Koran, Islam’s Arabic scriptures, until the entire book is read. The nearly two-hour recitation and interspersed prayers are called Taraweeh, which means “refreshment,” said Fazlullah.

As mosque spokesman Qureshi explained: “You are most blessed if you pray in community prayers at a mosque, and your heavenly reward increases if the temptation level is high.

“If you live in a jungle, there are few temptations,” he said, but living in a city with a small Muslim minority means temptations, especially when cookies, candies and drinks abound during a holiday period.

Qureshi said he doubted that many Muslims would adopt a strategy of taking vacation from work next week in order to make it easier to pass up office festivities and treats. And next year, Ramadan will start about Dec. 20--in the midst of the Christmas season, with its many food- and drink-filled celebrations.

“A person who is committed to fasting would fast regardless of what is going on around him,” Qureshi said.

Not only that, many Muslims have noted, families rise early each day for a predawn breakfast and eat hearty suppers after nightfall during Ramadan--and the daylight period between meals is shorter in December than it is in June, when Ramadan falls in other years.

When celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the festival of breaking fast near the end of next month, leaders of the mosque have decided not to risk another cold, rainy morning outdoors at CSUN.

Mosque leaders are considering holding two Eid prayer services at the mosque or having simultaneous prayers at the mosque and at a large restaurant, Qureshi said. The worship hall at the new mosque can hold 550 people, and mosque officials have received special permission from city zoning officials to have crowds larger than 250 people for a short duration on holidays.

After the Islamic center completes its first full year at the new facility in March, mosque leaders will apply for a relaxation of restrictions on attendance and membership, Qureshi said. The restrictions were imposed by zoning officials as a condition of the mosque’s construction, at the request of area residents.