Muhammad Harby fasts from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. Then, after he breaks his fast, he goes every day from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan for a late night meeting with hundreds of homeless New Yorkers who count on him and other Muslim volunteers for a hot meal.
They hand out chicken and rice, vegetables and fresh fruit from a food truck run by Muslims Giving Back, a charity based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, whose activities — and coffers — increase during Ramadan, when Islamic teachings push Muslims to to donate to charity and do good works for the most needy around them.
For Mr. Harby, a kung fu teacher who came to the United States in 1995, there is no better place to celebrate Ramadan than in New York.
“Believe it or not, I love Ramadan in New York City more than I do Egypt,” he said. “At home I would spend so much time with my friends and family, being invited here and there, and not focusing on worship and stuff like that. Here it is easy to focus on prayer and helping people.”
Praying and helping people are theologically central to Islam. While non-Muslims may best know Ramadan as a fasting month, it’s also a time of year when charitable giving is booming, both in New York and around the world.
In New York, millions of dollars change hands every Ramadan. The city is home to nearly 800,000 Muslims, accounting for nine percent of the population and 22 percent of the United States’ total Muslim population, according to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, which studies Muslim Americans.
Muslim New Yorkers are a diverse community whose members have roots in dozens of countries and range from white-collar professionals to low-paid workers. Many share little besides their religion, which is the city’s third largest, after Christianity and Judaism.
The celebration of Ramadan
The Islamic month of Ramadan, a time of prayer, fasting and feasting, began on April 2 in the United States.
The faith is based on the Five Pillars of Islam, a collection of fundamental beliefs and practices that include a belief in God and his last prophet, Mohamed; prayer; fasting during Ramadan; making the pilgrimage to Mecca; and charity, or zakat.
Islam calls on Muslims to set aside 2.5 percent of their accumulated wealth for zakat each year, said Khalid Latif, the executive director of the Islamic Center at New York University. It is based on a religious understanding that a person’s happiness depends on and is due to the community around them.
Doing good deeds or giving zakat during Ramadan is considered especially sacred, especially during the last 10 days of the month, when Muslims believe that God revealed the text of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad.
Muslim New Yorkers donated more than $608 million to charities in 2016, with Muslim households donating an average of 33 percent more than non-Muslim households in the United States, according to a 2018 report from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
“Muslims are taught that our wealth is a test: we can be stewards of that wealth, but it belongs to God, and we are tested on how responsible and ethical we are,” said Dalia Mogahed, the institute’s research director.
Ismail Ocasio, the executive director of Muslims Giving Back, said his group brings in between 50 and 75 percent of its $200,000 annual operating budget during the four weeks of Ramadan.
“For us, it’s like praying in the mosque,” he said. “You have to pray in the mosque and you have to find a way to give something back.”
During the holy month, which ends on May 1 this year, the group feeds 250 people each day in Brooklyn, then drives its mobile soup kitchen to Herald Square to feed about 150 homeless people at 11 p.m. Muslims Giving Back also organizes events such as blood drives throughout the year. Since its inception in 2012, it has expanded its operations to Dallas and Houston.
“Ramadan is like a marathon,” said Mr. Ocasio. “We start the month without being able to afford all this, but the community always comes together to sponsor us so we can go out and feed the people.”
Other groups in New York are experiencing a similar blessing for Ramadan. Last year, New York University’s Islamic Center raised $2.5 million, which was distributed in small grants to needy New Yorkers of all faiths, Mr. Latif.
This year it has raised more than $600,000 in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan.
“Ramadan wants to instill in people a different sense of awareness and awareness,” said Mr. Latif. “How we are all connected, and how we are all dependent on each other. Your relationship with others in the community is heavily emphasized in Islam.”
New York City’s Zakat Fund is an organization founded in 2019 to collect and distribute charitable donations to needy families and groups in the New York area, said Nadia Khan, a board member who assesses aid applications. She said both donors and applicants are hearing about the fund through word of mouth.
The Zakat Fund has raised an estimated $2.5 million from about 25,000 donors over the past three years and distributed it to 1,600 families in need across the city, said Nazar Khan, a board member.
It has also donated more than $200,000 to local organizations, including the Bronx Defenders, the Violence Intervention Program, and the Food Bank for NYC. Their desire to keep their aid local is based on the Islamic teaching that “you should try to give zakat by hand,” Mr Khan said.
“We are under no illusion that a $1,500 check can solve any existing problem,” he said. “But the idea is that zakat is the minimum obligation you have and once you start giving you can determine what else needs to be done for your community.”
Not all good deeds come in the form of a check.
At the Al Amin Mosque in Astoria, Queens, the nighttime sunset meal, called iftar, is provided free of charge to anyone who wishes. Members take turns paying for the nightly feast, which is served in the basement of the mosque to as many as 100 people during the week and more than 200 people on weekends.
“I will always help people in need of food and security because I have struggled with that in my life,” said Mohamed Jabed Uddin, the general secretary of the Astoria Welfare Society, as he placed biryani on plastic plates in the basement of the mosque. boasted while volunteering at a recent iftar.
His desire to help the poor is driven by his memories of washing dishes at a Greek restaurant in Jamaica, Queens, after moving to the United States alone at age 14. eyes.”
Back in Herald Square, Taiyyab Zaman passed out around midnight on a recent Friday with his two children, Jannah (5) and Musa (3).
On weeknights, he comes from Edison, NJ, to drive the food truck to Herald Square. But sometimes he brings his kids because “I want them to grow up knowing what service is.”
“Some people can give a lot of money during Ramadan, some people can give a lot of time,” said Mr. zaman. “I can’t give much of it either. But you just try to understand what you’re good at, and then you do it.”