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PrayerRamadan | 19 April 2022
Four Challenges to Pray for During Ramadan
Show: false / Country: Ramadan /
Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month on the Islamic calendar, is currently being observed by millions of Muslims worldwide. It’s a time when the core virtues of Islam – such as generosity and faithfulness – are practiced with increased intentionality.
For Christians, Ramadan is marked by increased pressure; especially for those who live as a minority in a Muslim-majority region.
Our local partners in Muslim regions are asking for prayer for our brothers and sisters who are facing challenges during Ramadan. Here are four specific challenges Christians face in Muslim-majority regions, and how you can pray for them:
Physical Challenges
Christians can sometimes be attacked, abused, denied food, or beaten. They are put under immense pressure to recite the shahada (Muslim confession). If they refuse, they are condemned as an infidel.
Emotional Challenges
Those who break under that pressure, struggle with guilt. They need other Christians to grow alongside and process their turmoil, as well as to have someone else to share burdens with. This kind of community is not always available.
Socio-economic challenges
Muslims are expected to give 2.5% of their net annual savings, creating resources for Muslims to tap into when needed. A follower of Jesus does not have a right to tap into any of those resources anymore. That means that they have limited opportunity to get food, access to school fees, money to pay medical bills, house rent or funds to start a business anymore. Muslims will also tend to boycott businesses run by Christians who have converted from Islam.
Loneliness
Every day, Muslims break the fast together and it is a time of very strong family community. The evenings are wonderful; there is the food and the fellowship. Often, Christians don’t find this kind of fellowship in the church. The Muslim community is all about ummah (society). Everybody exists because the community exists, and every individual is important. Unfortunately, churches tend to be individualistic. Everybody carries their own burdens.
