my name is joshua. and uh i converted to islam in 2005 when i chose the name mahdi for uh my islamic name, i was very interested in different cultures and religions and new things that you cannot find in the country like germany. i had a friend who was from pakistan. who owned a shop, one day in uh the

month of ramadan, the fasting, the month of fasting, uh, i was invited by him to his mask, when i came to that mask, there were several leaflets and books, also few qurans, which uh, i looked at, and one quran that i me found was translated to german, when i started reading the quran, it made me a lot calmer. i thought to myself, if you accept the here after, and if you accept the, if you accept that there is one god and that there has to be a god, then why don't you want to convert to islam? "my first experience of

fasting was not in the month of ramadan, but it was in the month of rajab, which comes before ramadan. i uh started my fast, and uh, i couldn't do it, i had to break the fast in in the afternoon at around three or four o'clock because it was so hot and it was so difficult for me to uh fast without drinking, i was not even hungry, but the the heat..." and the and the fact that i didn't drink any that i hadn't uh that i didn't drink anything for almost uh 12 or 11 hours was uh yeah was uh pretty difficult for me and it it made me break my fast on that day but uh i remember the first day of ramadan in the same year uh i did the whole the whole month of ramadan.

ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar islamic calendar. the visual sighting of the crescent moon signals the beginning of ramadan, which lasts 29 to 30 days. in this month, muslims fast from dawn till dusk and are encouraged to dedicate a portion of their day to prayer with. reading their holy book, the quran and reflection. iran's holy city of rom has been a hub for islamic schools and scholars for centuries. the faizier school is the most important islamic school in the world and one of the oldest.

ism as well, ivan ridley is an activist who has reverted to islam, of course there is fasting in christianity, but it's more symbolic now. um both moses and jesus uh fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and we're told that they went without food and water. it was really quite a a marathon. um, christians in the run up to their easter go through a period of fasting called lent, in which they give up something quite often, it's something like cigarettes or... chocolate, so it's quite symbolic, and it's it's not the um daily test that muslims put themselves through by simply not eating, not drinking, avoiding uh confrontational situations, having no physical, sexual

contact and and the like. leila is an american. living in iran who converted to islam years ago, she says islam gave her life direction. at the time i was um actually searching for a purpose in life, a goal, a direction in life. i knew that christianity, i was christian, didn't give me the answers that i really wanted. it wasn't specific enough for me. i wanted something that gave a reason for why we're here, a purpose, and i'd like. islam because it is the most complete religion and there is a rule or a prescription or a goal for everything you do, an explanation, and that suited what i was looking for. when muslims fast, they refrain from eating and drinking all the daylight

hours. for a first time faster, this is a challenging experience, especially when they have to go to work as usual, rain or shine. basically for me it was very strange experience, it's it's sort of exciting, but a little bit um a little bit difficult to start with, because as you're first starting to fast, you've never really experienced this not having this ability to not being allowed eat or drink anything all day long, so it was very um unique experience the first year, i was wondering at the beginning, had to doubt if i would be able to actually fast that because it was more like late summerfall and had a doubt as well to fast the number of hours because 'cuz i hadn't ever done it before, and after the first two or three days of adjusting to it, you realize that it's very um easy, and you actually look forward to fasting, so it was a little bit of um excitement, apprehension a little bit, can i do this, can i not do this, how how does everybody else do it in a warm climate, you

just lot of um questions for me to start with for the first time, but as the days went by and you get into this routine, you realize how easy that allah makes it for you when you fast, it's not difficult'. and you learn for the right reasons, oh my allah, for thee i fast, and the food th gives me, i break the fath, and i rely on thee. there are certain things a person who is fasting must not do, but they are only the physical aspects of what's going on within the person's heart and mind. از خوردن پرهیز کن, از آشامیدن.

but in secular countries it might be more difficult to fast. europe has more than 44 million muslims and the americas has around five million. i... started my fasting at 4 o'clock in the morning and of course my uh my family they are going to be hungry at 12 or one and they are going to want eat their lunch so uh in a way it's quite difficult especially when you are not used to it uh to see people eating in front of you and uh you yourself having to uh wait but uh i think in islamic in unislamic countries uh one thing that uh converts... uh habit to is that they uh they see all these things happening, they

see the most unislamic things happening in their in their countries, in their homes, in their cities that uh once they have it, it is easier for them to do fasting uh compared to a person who was born a muslim uh an islamic country or an islamic country, so uh yeah people get used to that, people got used to it to see, people in the streets drinking ice cold water or eating delicious foods and you're uh fasting. it's quite a difficult time for converts to islam in the west, um, very often their families don't support them, are almost hostile to their reversion to islam, and because there is so much excitement to the build up for most muslims, sometimes converts. get uh forgotten about and so they have to um cope on their own and

it it can be quite a a difficult uh time for muslims. muslims don't only fast during ramadan, some also fast voluntary on the 13th, 14th and 15th of rajab, the seventh month of the lunar islamic.

دل بکننی از دنیا دیگه بیا یه خورده خودتو بسازی می شودسازی خب اعتکاف.

اولین بارمه که اومدم واسه ارتکار برای اینکه بیشتر به خدا نزدیک بشم شکر خدا تو مسجد دانشگاه تهران ثبت نامی که انجام شد ظرف دو سه روز خدمتتون عرض کنم که حدود ۳ هزار متقازی ما داشتیم که همه جوان هستند قالب برای بار اول هست و قالبشون دانشجو و استاد هستن این نشون.

stop eating at one precise moment and start eating again with the sound of the azan. people give arms to the poor and visit family. یک جهت فلسفه ماه رمضان از اینه که سرمایه دارها پولدارها یه مقداری به درد دل بیچارگان برسن بدونندگی اونها چگونه است این

مارمزان که روزه میگیرند یاد فقرا میفتن رقت. در یک بعد مسئله مسئله اجتماعیته که محبت و مودت بین طبقات ایجاد کنه و طبقات را به هم نزدیک کنه همین که آقایون هی میگن اختلاف طبقات اختلاف طبقات پس یک حکمت فلسفه برش که اختلاف رو برمی داره یعنی در ماه رمضان غنی و فقیر همه در کنار هم روزه می گیرد یعنی که او دیگه نمیتونه بگه آقا بنده چنینم شما چنانید. "i the..." think islam gives us this opportunity to fast once year to increase that awareness, that heighten sense of your neighbors and community and society and that ability to help others becomes more aware during ramazan, because then we begin to feel what

sometimes our neighbors are feeling, whereas we may be so busy the rest of the year that we're not aware of that, or we take it with brain of salt, as we would say, we we know it's there, we know it exists, but we still go on with our daily lives. it is a time for great uh reflection, and it's a time when you think of brothers and sisters across the world and how they spend their ramadan and how they um spend their fasting. "and of course, for a large section of the uma, um, hunger is no stranger to them, there are brothers and sisters out there who survive maybe on just one meal a day, uh, especially in places like niger, which is often blighted by famon. the fasting month has some very

important nights, the most holy being the nights of khadr. muslims believe..." 1400 years ago on these very nights, the holy quran was revealed in full to prophet muhammad. muslims pray and read the josan kabir, among other prayers. they believe they are more likely to be answered on these nights. this ramadan during which is indeed very holy night or three very holy nights, i uh would like to ask god for uh curing many issues that are that have happened in in the world such as wars in countries like syria or

people losing their jobs in any part of the world. but one personal thing that i would like to ask is for forgiveness, because i think that every person, even if he tries not to commit a sin, is not able to not commit a sin, because we're not, we are not massum, we are not unfailable, we are human, and human do mistakes and if people do mistakes and they regret their mistakes, they don't they do not repeat. them, so i think it's a good occasion to ask god for forgiveness and to uh, yeah, not repeat those mistakes and keep the connection to god that you have reestablished in the holy month of ramadan in the first 20 days and in the last 10 days of that month.

raistädter, ich bin 28 jahre alt und lebe in nordenham. es war auch schwer für mich da auszubrechen, das hat lange gedauert, also es ist eigentlich erst passiert, nachdem ich... islamsaussagen vor muslimischen mann, wir wollen beide ein eine muslimische frau sein mit einem bodenständiges leben und dass ich gehen, wie

ich gehen möchte. ja, heute werde ich in der moschee des glaubensbekenntnis des einem gelehrten und damit offiziell zum islam konvertiert.

human life is electrical energy or electricity. honestly, if fossil fuels are used properly, i think most polluted cities would become pollution free. this is sarayevo, a country that shares borders with sir.

has had an important impact on preserving the religious and cultural identity of bozniak muslims over the years. abu taher, iraqi. لكل عراقي في ايام صدام حسین. قصه كامله يمكن يعملون منها مجلدات man who recounts saddam hussein's oppression of himself and

others. كل ما عندي امر لله عز وجل او قضاء حاجه او التوجه الى اهل البيت ومنهم الامام ابو الحسن موسى علي بن موسى الرضا let's hear's story together. 2014, a small african nation began to rip itself apart, the greay paul of death and destruction, c'est les maisons de qui qui sont détruit? on prend comme ça et puis on se coupe ici. "old colonizers came

back under the banner of peaceekeepers, history, ce sont des armé, l'armée français, mais il a pas de protestation, c'est eux qui ont créé cette histoire, c'est eux qui sont à l'origine de tout ce que nous vivons là, nos malheurs là, c'est eux qui sont les responsables."

rest of the headlines this hour, hamust officials say bodies of scores of palestinians have been found in gaza's al shifa hospital after israeli forces withdrew from the barricaded medical complex. israel forces call a palestinin man over a stabbing attack that left three settlers seriously injured. in the southern part of the occupied territories, also the headlines turkey's president conceeds local election setback, calls poll results turning point for his ruling justice and development party.