ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Muslims around the world are observing Ramadan this month. For believers, the holy month is about much more than fasting. It's a time for reflection and compassion, to give to the less fortunate, to gather with community to break the daily fasts and to pray. This month is also a time when the Muslim call to prayer can take on an added significance.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
TOM FACCHINE: If you're familiar with church bells, it's almost similar to church bells, but with the human voice.
SHAPIRO: We asked Imam Tom Facchine to tell us more about what the call to prayer means to Muslims, particularly now during the month of Ramadan. He's a research director at the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research in Irving, Texas.
FACCHINE: The first impression that I had of Islam and being in a Muslim country was the call to prayer. And I remember just opening my windows and listening to all the mosques as the sun would set, and they would one by one start to recite the call to prayer.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
FACCHINE: And it just moved me to tears. It was such a beautiful experience. And it was such a solemn invitation. The tone in which these things are recited is often just a very calm, almost pleading tone, right? It's like - it's almost as if your creator is inviting you to be your best self.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
FACCHINE: The Muslim call to prayer, which is known as the adhan in Arabic, is one of the fundamental rituals that we have that marks time. But it's also something that, during Ramadan, it's not just demarcating when you should pray. It's demarcating when you get to eat and drink (laughter). So everyone's eyes are on the clock because this is when we refrain from food and drink - yes, even water - from the beginning of the call to prayer, the first call to prayer in the morning, to the penultimate, the second to last call to prayer, when the sun goes down.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
SHAPIRO: Imam Tom Facchine with the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research in Irving, Texas.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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