Source: theoaklandpress.com | By Julia Satterthwaite

Approximately 350 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr at 11 a.m. Saturday at their Rochester Hills Mosque, 1730 W. Auburn Road.

Eid-ul-Fitr is Islam’s second largest holiday and marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan where community members fast daily to demonstrate discipline and strength, experience sympathy for the poor and become inspired to give as much as possible to those in need.

The celebration will last two hours and will entail congregational prayer where all members line up in rows and pray together, after which the President or Imam will give a sermon on the importance of Ramadan. There will be a large lunch feast following the service.

“Eid-ul-Fitr is a festive time for all Muslims to be joyful for what they have after a month of sacrifice,” said Wasim Ahmad Malik, vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. “We are encouraged to celebrate it with our family as well as the less fortunate members of the community.”

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was created in 1889 and now spans 200 countries, with the United States community established in 1920.

According to a press release, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the only Islamic organization to believe that the long-awaited messiah has come in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian, India.

The event is open to the public. For more information about the service, contact Mahir Osman, the secretary of public affairs for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Metro Detroit at 586-703-1068 or email mahir.osman@ahmadiyya.us.