God is great.
May the peace and mercy of God be with you.
It’s the first [day] of Ramadan today.
I cannot imagine
that we had to go through this.
We had actually thought that this year
we'd probably postpone it.
But then we said, let's try.
And we're doing OK so far.
I cannot believe this is Ramadan.
All of the mosques are closed,
and that’s usually the place
that they’ll run to for help.
The whole point of a mosque
is to be like the nucleus
of the community, right?
We said we have to find a way
to keep our doors open.
Even though we are closed to pray,
we can still be open to feed people.
So many families are out of a job.
Families are not eligible
for unemployment
or stimulus checks
due to their immigration status.
Yes, they are quarantined.
They are safe.
But in reality, they’re drowning.
- How you been?
Struggling.
- I’m basically out of work.
You call 311.
They give you a list of the pantries.
The majority of them are closed,
or they’re out of food.
So coming here is basically essential.
Also, they have halal food.
Coming here for, you know, fajr [prayer]
and everything like that,
and having a group of sisters around,
I don’t have that now.
I don't have a community now.
All this stuff that I’m going through,
I’m realizing - Wow, I’m just helpless.
So you just got to show them that
when you’re checking out.
No need to say anything.
- You’re a strong person, Samantha.
- You got this.
- You got it.
- Peace be upon you.
Since the whole beginning of this crisis,
we were delivering meals
to different hospitals,
police precincts,
FDNY stations, [Fire Department of New York]
just to show appreciation.
Happy Ramadan.
This pandemic changed everything.
You can’t even die regularly now.
You’re dying all alone by yourself,
and your family cannot come.
The physical, the mental,
the emotional toll is huge.
When you die,
this disease is not looking at
Muslims and Christians and Jews
or anybody.
It’s an equal-opportunity disease.
- I've seen them fight for ventilators.
I've seen them fight for PPE.
And I'm most gracious.
I’m very touched by it.
And I want you to know.
Yes.
A month ago,
they called me and they said,
“We need some help.”
And I was thinking that
this might be
a one- or two-day thing,
but then I realized that
it might last for months.
Normally, we used to get
like 30 bodies a month?
- Yeah about 30, average.
But now it’s like every day,
we are taking out
five to 15 bodies every day.
- This is the current situation from
Marlboro Muslim Memorial Cemetery.
Burial process in Islam
is very important because
once somebody die,
a community is responsible
for that person’s proper burial.
After coronavirus,
people are afraid
to come and wash the body.
- This brother, no family came along.
- And the other brother,
his daughter is here.
A lot of people,
they don’t even
want to come around me
because they see me going around
dead bodies and deceased people.
A lot of people,
they’re actually scared from me.
A lot of soup kitchens are closed.
A lot of services they used to get -
like taking hot showers,
free haircuts -
all of that has ceased.
It has stopped.
- There you go, mama.
Have a good night, alright?
Take care.
So while all of us are
ordered to stay home,
this is their home.
- Right here.
Get your electrolytes.
You’re welcome, sweetie.
You're welcome.
I don’t have to tell people
what my faith is about.
This is it.
This is to me what my religion is.
And I’m living it.
I’m experiencing it,
and bringing it to life.
This container holds about 50 bodies.
If we get an issue with the
cemeteries,
then we can keep the bodies
inside the freezer.
- God is great.
God is great.
I mean, the funeral prayers are like
one of the greatest obligation
the dead have upon the living, right?
Where you bring the body
in the mosque,
and everybody is there praying
for that person.
Now it’s literally being done
in the streets.
I prayed funeral prayers literally
in the street
outside of funeral homes,
you know, 6 feet apart.
And there’s trucks passing by.
It's so strange.
It lost that sense of
being a sacred,
very emotional time.
In past Ramadan,
I just have to worry about prayers.
But this year,
it's all about
burying people.
It’s difficult
to bury people while fasting because
picking up their body
is a real difficult job.
Kids are a gift,
and it’s always good to see them.
It’s helpful that
the family is supporting me.
The container we have
outside of funeral home,
it has some problem.
And the mechanic,
he doesn’t want to come to fix it.
He said you have bodies inside.
I don’t want to come.
They told him:
We give you $1,000.
And he said:
Not even for $2,000.
I don’t want to die.
So people are scared.
The world doesn’t end here.
Ramadan is once a year,
but I think the spirit has to go on.
We will need to support the community
and everyone
in a different way
after the COVID tsunami.
- So, it’s a very eerie feeling right now.
Just...
It’s so quiet.
It feels like I kind of let down
the community also in a way,
which is weird because
it’s not on my hands.
It’s not my fault all this happened.
But when people start
talking about their Ramadan experience,
that it’s not the same,
it’s sad, whatever.
It’s just like,
aw, man, I wish I would’ve
fixed this issue
or patched it up.
But you can’t.
It's crazy.
Amazing.
- Salah?
Let’s pray.
God is great.
Praise be to God,
lord of the worlds.
Most merciful, most compassionate.
Yes, our mosques are closed,
and we lost a lot of the spiritual aspect
of our holy month,
but I know 100% that
next year, I'm not going to take
nothing for granted
when it comes to Ramadan,
like enjoy every second of it.
- Amen.