The Biggest Iftar In The World

Bismi-llahi ar-ra?mani ar-ra?imi, In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. And I beg for forgiveness from Allah for whatever sin that I have done in the past and to show me the right path. Ameen.

Assalamualaikum / Greetings to all readers. This post was copy pasted from (http://www.gulfnews.com/News/Gulf/saudi_arabia/10243347.html)

By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent
Published: September 08, 2008, 00:04



Makkah: The squares within and outside the Holy Mosque of Makkah witness in Ramadan the biggest iftar in the world.

More than 12,000 metres of tablecloth are stretched daily for iftar along the Mosque area for worshippers to end their fast.

Officials in charge of the iftar in the Holy Mosque say its daily cost amounts to about one million Saudi riyals (Dh982,200).

Iftar does not take more than 15 minutes - from the time that people stretch the tablecloths out to the clearing of the remaining food.

The area where people take iftar is cleaned as fast as possible in order to leave room for people to perform Maghreb prayers.

The meal is served by various benefactors who are assisted by cleaning boys.

The Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs divided the squares around the Holy Mosque into various sections and assigned them to charity givers willing to provide iftar for worshippers.

Iftar offered by these benefactors are made of dates, juice, milk, and cakes.

Dates and Zam Zam water are served first before iftar.

Millions of dates

The number of dates consumed daily by worshippers in the Holy Mosque is estimated to be more than 5 million.

With about 1.2 million worshippers attending Maghreb prayers in the Holy Mosque, that huge number still only equates to three dates per person.

In the meantime, more than two million bottles of Zam Zam water are consumed by worshippers during iftar.

In the Tawaf area inside the Holy Mosque, the iftar tablecloths are not stretched until the last moment in order not to block the way for worshippers who want to finish the Tawaf rituals before Maghreb prayers.

Iftar inside the Mosque differ from that served in the outside squares.

It is not allowed to bring any food other than dates and coffee into the Holy Mosque to maintain the cleanliness of the Haram area. (Haram referring to boundaries of sanctity / sacred, not the haram which is forbidden)

Basically i found this news interesting as not many of us know what is happening in Makkah during Ramadhan, including me. From here, not only do we see the bonding that Islam brings to humanity, but it also goes to show the amount of muslims in this world. Bear in mind that this amount is only in this year and only in Makkah. What about adding up with the rest of the world linking back to Prophet Adam AS? That sure adds up to a very large amount.

However, Rasulullah SAW once said that when human beings are gathered on the Day of Judgement (meaning from the first human being to the very last), only 1 in 1000 will gain entry to Al-Jannah. All other 999 will be thrown into hellfire. This fact sure does send chill down the spine.

Hence, let us increase our taqwa / iman to Allah SWT in this blessed month of Ramadhan especially. We may have sinned in this month, but NEVER GIVE UP and keep increasing our faith and patience as a believer. NEVER underestimate the mercy of ALLAH SWT for he is the Most Forgiving and Most Merciful. InsyaAllah, our sins will be forgiven if He wishes. Ameen.