Ramadan

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and the holy month of fasting in Islam. During the month of Ramadan Muslims fast from dawn until dusk, and they are permitted to eat and drink only before sunrise and after sunset. Observing the daily fast for Ramadan comprises one of the Five Pillars of Islam. In addition to fasting, the month is a period of introspection, communal prayer (ṣalāt) in the mosque, and reading of the Qurʾān. God is said to forgive the past sins of those who observe the holy month with fasting, prayer, and faithful intention. The month of difficult fasting and focused religious observance concludes with the jubilant feasting holiday of Eid al-Fitr, “Feast of Fast-Breaking.”

Timing

Ramadan, like all months in the Islamic calendar, begins and ends with the sighting of the slightest waxing crescent moon, just following a new moon. The determination of when the month of Ramadan starts, based on sighting the crescent moon, is made locally within different countries or even by different mosques, thus creating variability of the precise beginning of fasting. Some communities or countries—such as Turkey (Türkiye)—base the beginning of Ramadan on astronomical calculations, while other communities require leaders to make visual confirmation of the crescent moon’s appearance, in which case cloud cover can create a delay. Islamic months last 29 or 30 days depending on the sighting of the waning crescent moon, so Muslims fasting for Ramadan do so for approximately 29 or 30 days. Because the Muslim calendar year is shorter than the Gregorian calendar year, Ramadan begins 10–12 days earlier each year, allowing it to fall in every season throughout a 33-year cycle.

During the month of Ramadan Muslims keep a fast, abstaining from food and drink from sunrise (fajr) to sunset (maghrib), but are permitted to eat and drink during the nighttime hours. The Qurʾān indicates that eating and drinking are permissible only until the “white thread of light becomes distinguishable from the dark thread of night at dawn” (2:187).

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World Religions & Traditions

These timing stipulations based on daylight hours necessitate adjustments in special circumstances. Muslims observing Ramadan close to the north and south poles, where the sun never or barely rises in winter and never or barely sets in summer, would fast not at all or incessantly if these rules were followed to the letter. In these instances, Muslims, in consultation with clerics, might opt to follow Mecca’s timing or the timing of a nearby major city. A similar special case arises for Muslims in space: before Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor embarked for the International Space Station during Ramadan in October 2007, the Malaysian government assembled 150 clerics and scientists to find a solution to this space-age conundrum. The clerics decreed that a Muslim in orbit during Ramadan could either make up the fasting days after returning to Earth or perform the fast based on the daylight timings at their point of liftoff into space.

Qurʾānic connections

The observation of Ramadan is stipulated in the Qurʾān in the second surah (Al-Baqarah [“The Cow”]) in verses 183–87. Verse 185 provides a clear overview of this observance:

The month of Ramaḍān in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, (let him fast the same) number of other days. Allah desireth for you ease; He desireth not hardship for you; and (He desireth) that ye should complete the period, and that ye should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that peradventure ye may be thankful. —Translated by M.M. Pickthall

Islamic traditions recorded in hadiths—sayings and traditions of Muhammad—further indicate that it was during Ramadan that there occurred previous divine revelations to prophets in Judaism and Christianity: a scroll to Abraham (Ibrāhīm), the Torah to Moses (Mūsā), and the Gospel (Injīl) to Jesus (ʿĪsā).

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God’s revelation of the Qurʾān to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibrīl) is believed to have taken place on one of the final 10 nights of Ramadan in 610 ce, though the exact night is unclear. This moment of revelation in the month of Ramadan is celebrated as Laylat al-Qadr, the “Night of Power.” The date of this annual commemoration varies throughout the Islamic world but is most commonly observed on the 23rd night of Ramadan for Shiʿi Muslims and on the 27th for Sunni Muslims. A distinctive custom among Shiʿi Muslims is a ceremony of supplication called Rafʿ al-Maṣā︎ḥif, so called for the moment when worshippers raise a copy of the Qurʾān above their heads. Laylat al-Qadr holds additional significance as a night in which angels are thought to descend to earth with a myriad of tasks, leading to a night of peace, blessings, and divine guidance (qadar) until the dawn. It is thus commemorated with solemnity, devotion, and prayer, and some observers spend the festival in a mosque.

Religious significance

Observing the month of fasting has deep religious significance for Muslims. Ramadan is a time for Muslims to practice self-restraint, in keeping with ṣawm (Arabic: “to refrain”), one of the pillars of Islam. Although ṣawm is most commonly understood as the obligation to fast during Ramadan, it is broadly interpreted as the obligation to refrain between dawn and dusk from food, drink, sexual activity, and all forms of immoral behavior, including impure or unkind thoughts. False words or bad deeds or intentions are deemed as destructive of a fast as is eating or drinking.

The fast at Ramadan is a time for deep consideration of religious matters and focusing on God. As mentioned in the Qurʾān’s introduction of the requirement in 2:183: “Fasting is prescribed for you…so perhaps you will become mindful of God.” Fasting the whole month is said to absolve sins. Alms (zakāt) and charity (ṣadaqah) are said to count more during Ramadan. It is a holy time of the year during which it is said that the gates to hell are closed and those to paradise are opened.

Practices

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There is more to Ramadan practice than fasting, although that tends to be the focus. Eating a festive evening meal, called ifṭār, after sundown is a central part of the holiday as well. After the sunset prayer, Muslims gather in their homes or mosques to break their fast, often joyfully shared with friends and extended family. The ifṭār usually begins with dates, as was the custom of Muhammad, or apricots and water or sweetened milk. There are additional prayers offered at night called the tawarīḥ prayers, preferably performed in congregation at the mosque. During these prayers, the entire Qurʾān may be recited over the course of the month of Ramadan.

The last 10 days of the month of Ramadan are considered particularly auspicious, and during this time some Muslims choose to abstain from worldly activity and retire to a mosque to practice intense prayer retreat known as iʿtikāf. To accommodate such acts of worship, especially in the evening, work hours are adjusted during the day and sometimes reduced in some Muslim-majority countries. In countries where Muslims are not in the majority, some institutions, such as schools or employers, may be requested to make reasonable accommodations for those observing these intensive religious practices.

Festive lanterns light up the streets and homes at night during Ramadan. Before dawn, another meal called suḥūr is eaten. Muslims in some communities sound drums or ring bells in the predawn hours in order to awaken everyone for this meal before beginning another day of fasting.

Fasting during Ramadan is not an overly strict requirement, and the Islamic tradition includes various exceptions. Those who are ill or traveling can make up the fasting time later. Upholding restraint through fasting can be invalidated by eating or drinking at the wrong time, but the lost day can be made up later with an extra day of fasting. Volunteering, performing righteous works, or feeding the poor can also be substituted for fasting if necessary. Able-bodied adults and older children fast during the daylight hours from dawn to dusk. Pregnant or nursing women, children, the old, the ill, the disabled, travelers on long journeys, and those with mental health issues are all exempt from the requirement of fasting. As the Qurʾān declares regarding exceptions (2:185): “Allah intends ease for you, not hardship.”

Breaking the fast

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The end of the Ramadan fasting month is merrily celebrated as Eid al-Fitr, the “Feast of Fast-Breaking,” which is one of the two major religious holidays of the Muslim calendar (the other, Eid al-Adha, marks the end of the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca). In some communities Eid al-Fitr is quite elaborate: children wear new clothes, special pastries are baked, gifts are exchanged, the graves of relatives are visited, and people gather for family meals and to pray in mosques.