Ramadan, the month in which the Almighty Allah revealed his divine scriptures to humanity in the form of the Holy Quran , has begun. During this month long period of abstinence, as over a billion of the faithful fast from daybreak to sunset, Amrita TV journeys through the practices, customs and traditions of the most auspicious month in the Islamic calendar, in a Ramadan special programme Al Manar.

Al Manar presents a representative collection of conventional songs, typical dance forms and time honoured folk art prevalent amongst the Moslem community of Kerala especially those in the districts of Northern Malabar, along with a series of discussions with eminent Muslims whose lives have been uplifted by the divine edicts and cannons of Islam. It will be telecast everyday of Ramadan from July 21st , daily at 08.30 am, IST (07.00 am UAE).

The programme includes a feast of traditional Muslim devotional songs as well as Qwaalis, the dynamic form of Sufi devotional music and Ghazals, lyrical articulation of the pangs of love, all of which are usually sung in the tranquility of the twilight evenings of Ramadan, after the recital of the sacred duva.

The cadence of the Oppana, the bridal group dance performed during the nuptial ceremony and the rhythms of Aravana Muttu and Duff Muttu, which resound in the villages of Malabar will resonate every Ramadan night in Al Manar .

A banquet of the delicious recipes of Ramadan, the typical soups, grilled meats, sweets, pastries, puddings of Iftar, the festive evening feast that breaks the fast and Suhour the pre-dawn meal taken before the commencement of the fast , form another delectable segment.

The sacred Quran recited in every home during Ramadan serves as al manar, a ‘beacon of hope’ or a lodestone guiding the believers along the right path. Al Manar, conveys the fragrance, the essence of the holiest month of the Mohammadeans in which the first verses of the sacred Quran were revealed to Prophet Mohammed as a message ‘for all mankind at all times till the end of time’ .