Halaqa: Ramadan for Muslims who don’t fast

New Unity, 277A Upper Street, London, N1 2TZ

the poster for the Inclusive Halaqa with the title Ramadan for Muslims Who Don't Fast. The date and time is Friday 1st March 2024 5.45-8.30pm. The text says This month we're talking about Ramadan for Muslims who don't fast. How can we nourish our relationship to Ramadan, evolve our spirituality and community connections while practicing self-restraint? The image is a digital illustration of a person with long hair and dark skin, wearing a waistcoat and a dress. There are plants at the bottom of the image and the background is two shades of deep red.

Our first halaqa of 2024 will be about practicing a Feminist Ramadan and how we develop our relationship with the divine through individual reflection and community engagement especially for Muslims who don’t fast. Tickets are required and available via Eventbrite. We are still going with our hybrid format which isn’t perfect but is improving with every event. Join us in-person or online for a discussion about:

  • reaping the spiritual benefits of Ramadan when we’re not fasting. This will be especially relevant for anyone who gets a period, is disabled, is on medication, is breastfeeding, and/or has experience of their body being policed by others during Ramadan.
  • maturing our relationship to the divine beyond a parental or punitive dynamic so that we can have a more expansive and less distant relationship with Allah, one which embraces the complexity of human and divine existence.
  • whether and how we fast this Ramadan so that it benefits our spirituality without harming us physically or mentally.
  • bringing our individual relationship with the divine and our relationships to our community together.

Content Note

We will likely be discussing experiences of disordered eating, religious trauma, ableism, and exclusion, invalidation and violence experienced by people with mental illnesses.

Agenda

5.45pm- Arrive

6pm – Maghrib salah

6.15pm – The facilitators will provide a short talk to kick off a wider discussion involving attendees in-person and online.

6.30pm – Group discussion

7.30pm – Closing remarks

7.45pm – Time to connect with each other.

8.30pm – Close.

Access

The venue is wheelchair accessible apart from the kitchen which only IMI volunteers will be able to access. Gender neutral bathrooms are available. This event is in-person with an option to join online. For those joining online, a link will be sent to you a few days in advance and we will have auto-captions enabled. For those attending in-person, please wear masks and take covid tests on the day of the event. We consider wearing masks a necessary act of care towards disabled and immunocompromised people. Windows in the room will be open to allow ventilation to prevent the spread of Covid so please dress warmly.

We’re asking all attendees to purchase tickets if they can as this helps Inclusive Mosque to sustain our work. If you need a free ticket, use promo code free1532 when checking out and remember to click ‘apply’ when you enter the promo code.

Code of Conduct

We are asking all attendees to commit to showing up in a way that doesn’t put Inclusive Mosque or the people who attend our events in harms way. This means we will not make room for name-calling, racism of any kind, or incitement towards hatred or violence. As a charity, we cannot discuss political parties but we can critique government policy and mobilise towards changes to government policy that would address injustice. We will be sending a community agreement out to everyone who signs up to attend this event and we expect everyone to read and respect it.