Joy for new convert

'03 Ramadan was 'fantastic experience' for woman

Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 16, 2004 12:00 AM

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has begun, bringing with it high expectations of joy and fulfillment among the Islamic faithful.

The new moon was spotted Thursday evening, starting Ramadan. Muslims rely on the phases of the moon at the end of the eighth month of the Muslim calendar to start the monthlong event.

The 1,425th year of Islam will be the second year of Ramadan for Alyssa Yingling of Tempe, who officially converted to the faith last year, a week before Ramadan began.

The month of fasting "was a joy, a fantastic experience," said the 20-year-old student at Arizona State University.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of Islam's five pillars, or articles of faith. During the holy month, Muslims do not eat, drink, smoke or have sex in the daylight hours. Followers end each day of fasting with feasts, visits to friends after sundown and a formal reading of the entire Koran through the month.

The month is observed among 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide and about 30,000 in the Phoenix area.

While prayer and fasting are the outward expressions of the faith during Ramadan, they only serve to emphasize the strong inward expressions of Muslim belief. Muslims believe that the activities enable a person to build spirituality, charity toward others and relationship with God.

These are some of the qualities Yingling was seeking when she found Islam.

Yingling said she was a practicing Episcopalian when she began "looking for a faith that fit my ideas of what truth is." The Muslim faith and lifestyle simply fit, she said.

Ahmed al-Akoum of Chandler teaches the fundamentals of Islam at the Islamic Cultural Center in Tempe. He says interest has been high for years, with an average of 20 students every semester.

While the class is not aimed at converting students, some do change their faith.

"They are surprised to learn about the real Islam, and to put aside the false stereotypes," he said.

David Damrel, a professor of religious studies at ASU who specializes in Islam, said Islam has as high a conversion rate as any other religion, despite continuing negative public perceptions.

"It's a really interesting phenomenon, and it has a lot of reasons," he said.

Among them: a growing interest in non-traditional spirituality, expressed by interest in many faiths outside the Judeo-Christian traditions. Along with that comes a feeling of familiarity that converting Christians can find in Islam.

"Islam has some of the same ideas and concepts - God, saints and prophets, heaven and hell - rearranged a little bit," Damrel said. "So it is not all that foreign."

For Yingling, she liked the Muslim concepts of the afterlife; its idea that all individuals are born good, without the Christian idea of original sin; and Islam's "constant devotion to prayer."

Ramadan last year enabled her to deepen her commitment and renew her body and her spirit, she said.

"The first couple days were challenging," she said. "The worst part was no water. I tend to drink a lot of beverages."

Once she got through the beginning of the month, it got easier.

"Ramadan built me up spiritually," she said. "I became closer to God, prayed more and focused on being a good person."

Damrel said Ramadan is powerful for Muslims for several reasons. A sense of community, both in sharing the fast and in gathering to break the fast every evening is a major key to the month's impact.

Large prayer services and fast-breaking celebrations are held at the end of the month, Nov. 15 on the Western calendar. The feast is called Eid al-Fitr, literally "the festival of fast-breaking." "Tradition holds that Ramadan is the month of mercy, when the first part of the Koran was given to Muhammed," Damrel said. "Muslims think of it as an especially wonderful time of year."