Long-Awaited Eid al-Fitr: Double Joy This Year!

Dear brothers and sisters in faith! We are offering you our heartfelt congratulations upon the merry feast of Eid al-Adha (Uraza-Bayram)! We have a double reason to celebrate this year, as this is the twentieth Ramadan we celebrate as Association “Alraid”! By the grace of God, we went a long way from modest gatherings to scale joint iftars, from poor amateur initiatives to a full-scale spiritual programme on this Holy month.

Ramadan wasn’t hot this year, thank God. the time when it covered the period of the longest days and the shortest nights in also gone. The believers weren’t just idly fasting, they continued to perform their duties at work, in their studies, at their homes, and even managed to find time and inspiration to carry out some additional volunteering, charity and worshipping!

Yes, it’s been easy to get up for night worship and suhoor on some days, but sometimes we even overslept it and woke up when it was already too late to eat or drink. In some moments we managed to recall that we were fasting before we acted or said anything wrong, and we refrained from hash comments, rude words and anger, but on the other days we broke down which we bitterly regretted.

But the main thing is, that we kept helping each other overcome all the hardships and get close to God. We took those small, but regular baby steps day by day and year by year, and this is the great Mercy of God for the Ukrainian Muslims, that we can always rely on one another. We sincerely thank everyone who has been around all this time and helped with their kind words and actions!

Praying that our sins are to be destroyed by our fasting,our sincere repentance, and  our good deeds. May our hearts be strong enough to refrain from the same mistakes in the future! Peace and god’s Mercy be upon all of us! Happy holiday, dear brothers and sisters! May the Lord accept the fasting from all of us!

All-Ukrainian Association “Alraid”