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From Sahoor drums to online applications: Ramadan through the eyes of 3 generations of a Pakistani family
Islamabad: The noise of plates, spoons and forks filled the air when Mahmood Ahmed Hashmi, 67, broke his fast earlier this week at his home in Islamabad, sitting with his floor of three sons, daughters and grandchildren.
Ramadan’s traditions and practices evolve through generations, influenced by changing demography, lifestyles, media and digital applications, while retaining the central spiritual elements of fasting, prayer and charity.
As in other parts of the world, the digital era has also significantly altered the way in which Pakistani families observe Ramadan, offer new ways for spiritual commitment, community connection and access to resources through applications, social networks and online platforms.
FastMade
The digital age has significantly altered how the Holy Month is observed, offering spiritual commitment through applications, social networks and online platforms.
Hashmi, a retired official, explained how Ramadan has changed through the generations of his family, starting with the tradition of the Ramadan drummers who walk the streets, overcoming the battery to wake people to awaken people for food prior to dawn. Once it is a typical feature of the Holy Month, the usefulness of tradition has eclipsed the leg by TV, mobile phones and alarm.
“In those days, the other part used to go out in the neighborhood to wake people for Sahoor,” Hashmi told Arab News in Ifar. “Drums and other things used to get people, but now you have everything on your cell phone.”
Mobile applications have become indispensable tools for Muslims around the world Ramadan, which offer characteristics such as prayer time reminders, Quran recoveries and fasting trackers, guaranteeing precise time and accessibility.
While many people used to visit neighboring or community religious meetings, now platforms such as YouTube and Tiktok present Islamic academics and influencers that share daily reflections of Ramadan, Tafseer, and Qur’ Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips and Tips. Accessible, especially for younger Muslims.
The social media platforms have also become the main ways to share greetings from Ramadan, exchange recipes and discussion of spiritual reflections.
The EID cards written by hand, once widely exchanged between friends and family before the Eid al-Fitr festival after Ramadan, are now a rarity in the era of shared digital congratulations cards on WhatsApp and other messaging platforms.
“How good it used to be the feeling of obtaining eid cards from their loved ones,” he said. “Their loved and close beings used to wait for them. People used to show them in their rooms or rooms. Now an image (card) will come (on the mobile phone).”
Ontar and Sahoor meals would also be done completely at home, or with snacks and foods bought from neighboring restaurants, and would be consumed as a family, while food was now ordered more and more online applications according to individual options, Haashmi.
While the retired official regrets the decrease in many of the customs of the Ramadan of his youth, his son Miraj Mustafa Hashmi, a professor at the National University of Technology Sciences and Technology, said digital innovations such as mobile devices every day, while the traditions of stials stials.
“Applications such as Foodpanda have replaced traditional market trips to tie (articles),” said Miraj, explaining that this was beneficial for people who did not have the luxury of time due to jobs and another response.
“It is a digital era, Things are going on like that and People are comforbable in it. Pressure and the pressure and the pressure and the pressure and the press
Digital platforms and applications have also facilitated that people donate to charity and support those in need, a central aspect of the sacred month, Miraj said.
For his 10 -year -old son Ibrahim, a student who was limited to the age of 7, Ramadan is about being able to order his favorite online dishes and verify the Internet for the times of Iphtar and Sahoor.
“I love having noodles, pizza, macarrones, sassy, ​​pakoras and jalebis to Ifar,” Ibrahim said.
But there was something Miraj lost about the way Ramadan used to be observed?
Family and friends used to be more frequently in Ramadan’s events when they had no luxury to connect through video calls, he said.
“When I think of my childhood, we used to go to social events, we used to buy our grandparents, we used to do all these activities.
“If we see, our parents spent a very hard life due to limited facilities, but they do it a little more aquatic (for us) and our children live a life and Musier technology are useful.”