During the month of Ramadan Muslims from all communities and background organise community events such as iftars, naat recitations, taraveeh (prayers) throughout Australia.
In the same spirit, an event was organised last Sunday in Melbourne by Pakistan Students Association Australia (PSAA) to celebrate the holy month.
Zeeshan Humayun a representative of the student association told SBS Urdu that our initial plan was that we wanted to do daily iftars during Ramadan.
Naat Recitation on 12th May in Melbourne. (Kanwal Nasir) Source: Kanwal Nasir
“We wanted to provide free iftar daily for students but realized we did not have enough time to organise it,” he said.
“Hence we decided to do a single iftar and see how the response is. Naat khawani (recitation) was added to the event later on.
“The turnout was amazing more than 250 people attended the event including students and families,” he added.
Muhammad Owais Qadri specially travelled 5 hours by road from Leeton NSW to take part in the event as a Naat khawan.
Naat Recitation & Free Iftar organised by PSAA in Melbourne on 12th May. (Kanwal Nasir) Source: Kanwal Nasir
In a conversation with SBS Urdu, he said that he is very passionate about reciting Naats and could not miss out on such an opportunity.
"It was a great opportunity to meet the Pakistani community in Melbourne. In Leeton, we only have 4 to 5 Pakistani families and rarely get a chance to be part of such events," he said.
"[After reciting] the response was great from the people. I felt really encouraged and got a lot of love and support," he added.
More than 10 Naat khawan’s took part in the recitations and were appreciated by the attendees.
Source: Kanwal Nasir
People have praised the efforts of the student organisation on social media.
Naz Memon wrote on Facebook “Well done PSAA brilliant setup and best arrangement of aftaar and dinner and in good time management everything was perfect…”
Source: Facebook
Shehzad Ali commented “V well-organised program.”
