July 30, 2011

Two days before Ramadhan, a small group of Turks youth who live in Germany gather in Frankfurt at one of their ‘Abi’s’ apartment for a weekend. They range in age from 15-19, and their Abi, Talha, is 22, a student of Theology. First they have dinner, three massive dishes of a Turkish pasta with yoghurt, along with three smaller dishes of penne and börek. After dinner they sit with tea and sweets as Talha grills them with some questions about Ramadhan they may be asked by Germans.

“What will you do if someone asks you, ‘why do you fast in Ramadhan?’ Would you simply tell them because God said so? You have to be able to explain to people the bodily and spiritual benefits of Ramadhan, and in clear German; they won’t understand the Turkish or Arabic phrases.”

These type of ‘Abi houses’ or ‘ders hana’ are in place all over the country, and in fact all over the world. They are all based around a principle, that if you live in a commune where you have religious support, you are much less likely to commit sin. Not only do they live, eat, hang out, and pray together, but they also study together, based around the teachings of Said Nursi, a well known Turkish Islamic scholar of the Early 20^th century, and also partly around the contemporary Fetullah Gülen, who has done wonders for Interfaith.

These houses are so well organized that they even function the same. Everyday a different person is responsible for the cooking and cleaning for the entire day. They gather weekend nights to have ‘sohbet,’ or a religious gathering/discussion where they often read from Nursi, Gülen, or any other (usually) Muslim scholar and discuss it afterwards. The hospitality is also the same across the world. Twice now, I’ve been allowed to sleep at the homes without knowing a single person living in them. Invited in with open arms, well fed, and have even been picked up/dropped off from the airport.

The Abis know what they’re doing with this system. They take in the youth once a month for these weekend gatherings, just students from high school and their college aged mentors, and learn about their religion. These youth always have their Abi to look up to whenever they have trouble.

“It’s like a religious refueling- a lot happens in one month, especially under such social conditions which sometimes starkly contrast our more conservative Islamic ways, so it’s good to have them come over, learn about their religion, and learn how to balance their religion and their life in this society.”

Later at the Islamische Gemeinde Frankfurt Abu Baker Moschee (mosque), it is announced that Ramadhan is two days away, so Taraweeh (a tradition in Islam where the Qur’an is divded into thirty parts and one part is read each night of Ramadhan) will begin the following day. The mood becomes overwhelmingly joyous as people embrace one another with hugs.