Simple culture of Iftar

The Concern of supreme leader in 24 years ago who spoke about it in this way:
Imagine you're in a new city, what symbols and signs or things are initially attracted to you? Is Architecture of the City? Is Construction of it? Are Highways and streets of it? Or etc.?
Now imagine that you are in a city that already you have heard that the city is one of the holy cities, for example, one of the Islamic cities, what you are seeking to prove the proposition for yourself, to what do you pay attention? In your opinion, "Islamic city" has what kind of features? Is a city with a mere "architecture" of Islam? Is it, for example, a city with a high dome and minarets? Is this a religious site? Does by the mere existence of these we can say that the city is Islamic?

The main pillars of cities

In order to answer his question, we must say that although architecture or "Urban" is a key element in understanding the difference between Islamic city and other cities, but this is not at all the only difference. The architecture of the city is a "necessary condition" for the realization of the Islamic city but it is not "sufficient" at all. Besides the architecture, the city should have two other important elements: First, humans as the most important players in the community, and second the communication between the actors. So the city consists of two parts of hardware and software. Architecture is the city's hardware and software is human social relations. Incidentally, the city's software is more important than the hardware. In other words, if we accept that "every town and city, make its people", the Islamic city is a city in that firstly Muslim people live, and secondly, the social relations between them is based on Islamic teachings .
However, to build social relationships in an Islamic city, firstly the "lifestyle" or as the Supreme Leader had said the "lifestyle of people" should be corrected. Ramadan is one of those special days of the year, in which the lifestyle of people could be modified in the two areas of "individual" and "social”. For a Muslim, Ramadan is merely an excuse for him to modify his customary lifestyle and be more closely to God's way of life; it is a life style that it is supposed to be taken away from "attachments" and "dependences" of this world. Khomeini (rahmat allah) also says if at the end of Ramadan, there is no change in the person's life style, know that that person did not fast:
"You at least do the fundamental traditions of fasting, as your belly is banded from eating and drinking, band your eyes and ears, and your tongue and do not do sin! So now let the absence of slander, backbiting and lying, hatred, envy and other evil ugly traits and out them from your heart . . . If at the end of Ramadan, the your actions are changed and you do not develop the way you did before Ramadan, it is clear that you have fasted correctly ."
From The social point of view, it is clear that a change in behavior and lifestyle of an individual is reflected on the society. That is why, according to statistics and studies conducted by social pathologies, it can be said that the statistics of crime in the community, are significantly reduced during Ramadan.

Social movements generated a change in lifestyle:

Although the relationship between the individual and society is a "dialectic" relationship and it is an interaction that are affected by each other, but sometimes "social movements" can cause both social impact and consequently the individual impact . For example, one of the concerns that the Supreme Leader had in years ago was promoting the culture of "simple iftar” among people.
The first time the Supreme Leader pointed to the simple iftar, was 24 years ago. In those days, he visited the Imam Khomeini's Relief Committee and he said: "Nowadays, in some Islamic countries, there is a good tradition that in the holy month of Ramadan, most mosques have iftar, the men go in the mosque and have iftar, but just deprived families stay and only men eat iftar and then they come back! If you spread this tradition too, it is so good. - Albeit feed the whole family. During the previous regime, this communication was so little and even it had been frozen, and unfortunately it is forgotten. We have to keep alive this communication in the Islamic era. "
Later, in the sermons of Eid in 1386, and 1387 (Prayers sermon on Friday), the leader noted, it is still not comprehensive as it should be. But in the Eid of 1392 in the prayer sermon, Ayatollah Khamenei once again referred to the theme of simple iftar and said, "This year more than other years, there have been this good tradition. It is good to be considered and we see simpler iftar freestanding in the mosques and on the streets in most cities of the country - which is a humanity effort. As oppose to this. It is heard that some people by the excuse of iftar, do wasteful efforts and activities and instead of having iftar as a tool for spreading spiritual closeness to the poor in Ramadan, by this action, t they move away from them and immerse themselves in the pleasures of material world. We do not want to say that if someone break the fast with one nice food, it is forbidden the Islamic laws, it is not prohibited, but extravagance is prohibited, and indulgence is forbidden. Wasting foods is prohibited. it is better that those who want to have iftar, follow this same tradition that has become popular, feed the people by simple iftar, and those who want to take advantage of iftar, they could use free tables on the streets , in the alleys, in the mosques, or anywhere deprived people wait for them. So they could feed people generously.”

Begin the Social movement of "simple iftar”:

surveys of Leader show that he is in fact emphasis on simple iftar and simple iftar culture and he wants to develop this culture. The simple iftar culture is as oppose to “wasteful iftar”. The consumerism lifestyle of individuals is changed and on the other hand we will learn the culture of "charity", the transfer of attention from "I" to "others", and thus we could changes the current urban space.
Therefore, KHAMENEI.IR website in 1393, attempted to recall sending photos of simple iftar ceremony in urban areas. A few days after this post, we saw the movement of simple iftar in the virtual spaces and just over 1000 real photos were submitted to the site KHAMENEI.IR. But more than this number of pictures from simple iftar places were distributed throughout the country in social networks and several national media report on this topic. Of course, this good tradition was beyond the scope of simple iftar in Tehran and it was in other cities, and even in some villages of our country.
Perhaps all these proceedings that led to the Supreme Leader's Eid sermons in the last year (1393) could teach this feeling of satisfaction more. And the leader noted that: “the goal of these ceremonies is having simple Iftar a common tradition among people who thank God and find people in this month of Ramadan who feeding people in public, and this becomes a public activity. Last year, our people were asked to decrease the procedures of iftar but instead increase the people to whom they are feeding, they increase the quantity of ceremonies this year in public places, sacred centers, on the streets, and etc. thanks god.
The news reached us that in anywhere in the country, people have done this and it shows that people have developed their simple iftar ceremonies. My humble advice is things like this - that influence in shaping Islamic lifestyle – and you should further develop it. "
However, simple iftar is simple and is held simply but it has profound personal and social effects of that the lowest are the sacrificing behavior, loyalty and respecting the others. And by passing time, we could build an Islamic city by urban construction and based on these criteria. A city where social relationships are more valuable than anything else and they are on the basis of "religion" and religious doctrines.