The Muslim Association of Greater Pittsburgh held an interfaith dinner at the end of March, inviting the Cranberry Township community to join and learn more about Ramadan.

Amro Elaswalli, prayer leader or “imam” for the mosque, said the dinner was an opportunity for community members to learn about their Muslim neighbors.

“Our religion is about peace, so this was the main message: We’re your neighbors; we love you, and we’re not your enemies,” Elaswalli said.

The event, at the group’s mosque in Gibsonia, hosted public officials such as state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-38th, as well as Jewish, Hindu and Christian leaders from the region.

“The main purpose of that event was to explain to people who Muslims are — who your neighbors are — that Ishmael is one of the sons of Prophet Abraham, and Muhammad ... is the great-great-great-great-grandson of Ishmael,” Elaswalli explained. “We just wanted to let them know that our faith is almost identical to the Abrahamic faiths, especially the Jewish faith, for example.”

Elaswalli said the evening featured a presentation on Ramadan as well as a forum on members’ experiences as Muslims living in the United States.

“We did a short introduction about what Islam is, what Ramadan is, why we fast, and some of our youth shared their experience as Muslims in the U.S. — what it’s like to wear a hijab in a public school and things like that,” he said. “Then we had a quick Q&A, and we started eating together after that.”

Ramadan, Elaswalli said, is a month of fasting and good deeds. This year, it began on March 22 and ends Thursday evening, April 20.

“It’s the month in which the Quran — the Revelation for the Muslims — was first revealed to Prophet Muhammad, and we believe that it is such a blessed month that any good deed that you do is worth 1,000 times what you would do outside of that,” he said. “One of the six pillars of Islam is what happens during that month, which is fasting.”

Elaswalli said the month requires fasting from dawn to sunset.

“And during that period of time, we can’t eat or drink or have romantic relations with our spouses,” he explained. “But after sunset, we can do all of that.”

Before dawn, Elaswalli said Muslims partake in a meal called “suhur.”

“We also believe it’s a blessed meal, so it helps you to go on through the whole day without getting hungry or thirsty,” he said.

After dark, Muslims partake in a meal called “iftar.”

“And usually people get together at the mosque to eat together,” Elaswalli said.

Traditionally, both meals begin with dates, water and prayer. The dates, he said, are significant in Muslim faith — they were the meal Muhammad ate during suhur.

“And then you eat a regular meal,” Elaswalli said. “It could be anything; it could be lamb, goat, chicken, rice.”

In addition to daily prayers and fasting, Elaswalli said, Muslims also participate in additional services during Ramadan.

“During the month of Ramadan we have this prayer called ‘Taraweeh’ — this is an hour-and-a-half long prayer,” he explained. “We do it in congregation, and we try to finish the entire Quran in that prayer, so we recite one part a night and the Quran has 30 parts. So, by the end of the month, we would have finished reciting the entire Quran.”

Elaswalli said Ramadan recognizes the very foundations of the Quran.

“Prophet Muhammad, by the age of 40, he was meditating; he would go to a cave to meditate about the existence of God,” he explained. “One day, while he was in the cave, the angel Gabriel — which we believe is the same angel that came to Prophet Moses and Prophet Jesus and Prophet David.”

Elaswalli said Gabriel showed Muhammad the first revelation of the Quran.

“Which was the first five verses from a chapter called Al-‘Alaq,” Elaswalli said. “That was on the night we call the Night of Power, Laylat al-Qadr, which is also in the month of Ramadan. We believe it is the 27th day.”

The Night of Power holds a special significance during Ramadan, Elaswalli said.

“If you worship Him on that night, it’s as if you worshiped Him for 85 years,” Elaswalli said. “So the beginning of the revelation was in that cave, on that night, in the month of Ramadan.”

The dates for this month, Elaswalli said, change yearly as Muslims follow the lunar calendar.

In addition to the recent Interfaith Iftar held at the Muslim Association of Greater Pittsburgh, Elaswalli said he participates in the Cranberry Area Diversity Network’s Interfaith Alliance.

The group is planning an interfaith panel, he said, for the Cranberry community.

“This was a new idea that we wanted to come up with,” Elaswalli said. “The only thing: we’re trying to find the right place for it, because our mosque is too small, so it might be in a church. Once we find a venue, we’re going to decide when we’re going to do it.”

The goal of these interfaith events, Elaswalli said, is to promote understanding and cooperation in the community.

“We need to get to understand each other,” he said, “and we need to help each other and cooperate with each other to help other people around us make life better for everyone.”