For the most part, the programme lineup surpasses a typical community event—or what I imagine a community event to be.

Highlights include performances by the combined choir comprising children from the Church and Jamiyah Children’s Home, video montages of images depicting interreligious harmony in Singapore, Sheikh Mustafa Syarqawi from Egypt reciting verses from the Quran, the Church donating $10,000 to Jamiyah Singapore for their charity efforts, and a frankly overwhelming number of speeches about focusing on the similarities that bind religions instead of the differences that divide.

Despite the notable differences between Muslims and members of the Church, the event reiterates that both faiths go through fasting both for spiritual purification and to feel closer to God. While Muslims fast for a month from sun up to sun down, members of the Church fast once a month for 24 consecutive hours.

I, on the other hand, am deeply ashamed that I’d tried AND FAILED SPECTACULARLY to fast before attending the event that evening. (I broke fast at 4 PM after going slightly delirious from hunger; my last meal had been dinner the night before at 6 PM.)

As I sit in the hall listening to Quran verses, I have nothing but sheer respect for the willpower and determination it must take to fast for 24 hours, what more a whole month.