# Pillar 4: When Do Muslims Fast? | Convert Resources **Author:** Sh. Abdullah Oduro **Series:** 5 Pillars Made Plain **Published:** 2020-10-15 **YouTube:** https://youtu.be/1k-8XiwUO9w **URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-4-when-do-muslims-fast **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia ## Description Fasting during Ramadan begins from sun-up until sunset. Throughout the day, Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking and physical intimacy. When does this holy month commence? Sh. Abdullah Oduro explains different methods that determine the first day of fasting and gives advice on how to approach... ## Transcript **[0:00]** Peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all. I'm Abdullah O'Douro and welcome. This is an interesting issue that we're going to talk about. It's one of the W's of Ramadan, **[0:20]** but it's a W of Ramadan that you're going to encounter. But upon encountering this, don't let this shake your conviction or your love of the community or the Muslim ummah, etc. When is Ramadan? You're probably sitting with a friend now, a person that's a seasoned Muslim, **[0:38]** or someone that knows exactly what I'm talking about with these three words. When is Ramadan? This is a trial or a test for us. We can use the word challenge for us as Muslims. Let's start off with what we all know. Firstly, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Now, the **[0:58]** Ramadan is 29 or 30 days depending on the rotation of the moon and when it is spotted. Ramadan is from sunup to sundown, meaning that upon the entrance of the Fajr prayer is when one should start to fast. After the entrance of the time of the Fajr prayer, the time that you see on the **[1:17]** prayer schedule, if it says 6.50, by 6.50 you should stop eating, stop drinking, you cannot have intimacy with your mate, all the way till the Maghrib prayer. When the Maghrib evening sundown, the sundown prayer comes in, that's when you can commence to eating, drinking, and being with your **[1:35]** spouse intimately. You should stop eating and drinking from that time span from Fajr to Maghrib on a daily basis for 30 days within this ninth month of the Islamic calendar. How does one determine the entrance of the month? Now, as we know with the lunar calendar, the beginning of **[1:54]** the month is spotted by the crescent moon. As when we see in the sky, there's a crescent moon, that is when the month starts. Now, typically, it should be a trustworthy individual that sees the entrance of the month of Ramadan being the crescent moon. But nowadays, within your masjid, **[2:13]** your imam, or there are organizations that are trustworthy, that are well-known and reliable, they can tell you when the entrance of the moon comes in. And that is done by an imam or the likes of them. So when you are told by a trustworthy individual that the entrance of Ramadan has come **[2:31]** in, that's when the next day or the next day at Fajr prayer, you start to fast. Now, what you're going to find as a side point, as an important point, is that you will find Muslims, they may not start on the same day. Do not let this discourage you from fasting the month of Ramadan. **[2:49]** Because sometimes we'll say the Muslims are not unified. You know, I have a calendar, and I need to know when to tell my job when I fast. You know, you'll find certain opinions of scholars that say, no, we have to see it, and we can't know until the night before. Basically, after the night prayer, **[3:05]** we'll be able to, after the night prayer on Monday, we'll be able to tell you if you're able to fast on Tuesday. Right? So that's what, where you may find some people have that opinion. You may find others have the opinion that say, look, we need to determine this 12 months in advance **[3:21]** to know when we can take our vacations, etc. Therefore, we look on a calendar, and we go by calculations, by calculating through science and seeing when the birth and the death of the moon take place, when that will happen. So we approximate, and nowadays we can be exact to **[3:38]** find out when the birth of the moon will happen. So we know that Ramadan will be on the 28th of June, and we are in January, for instance. My advice to you is go with your local community, or go with the individuals that you trust in your local community that have knowledge and taqwa, **[3:59]** and what you can perceive as mindfulness and fear of Allah. Follow them, and inshallah, Allah is the all knowledgeable, He's the all wise, He's the all merciful, and He is thankful for you that you are practicing this fasting in the month of Ramadan. Whether you fasted a day in advance, **[4:18]** or you had your Eid on the day after that, Allah knows best. The most important thing is that you are trying. The conclusion of Ramadan is characterized by what is called the Eid, E-I-D, and Eid linguistically means to repeat, or to be consistent, to come after one after the **[4:36]** other. So this obviously will be every year. The Eid is the day after you conclude your Ramadan. So, if it is the 30th day, so let's say you break your fast on the last day at Maghrib, **[4:51]** at Maghrib prayer you break your fast, you will be told, okay this is the last day of Ramadan, tomorrow will be Eid. So that next morning, let's say you break your fast on Friday night, Saturday morning is Eid. That is when you would go and pray the Eid prayer, and go and eat the **[5:11]** rest of the day. What's important is that you celebrate on this day. This is when you want to give presents to your friends, your family, your neighbors, where you can slaughter an animal and you can go and distribute it. And there's also what is called the Zakat al-Fitr. We talked about **[5:27]** that in Zakat. So in this month of Ramadan, we ask Allah to make you of those that are sincere, we ask Him to make you of those that are diligent in finding out when the entrance of this month comes in and when it ends. We ask Him to make you of those upon this celebration of the month **[5:43]** of Ramadan that you will be those that celebrated in praying and in fasting and in thankfulness. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Thank you. ## Other Episodes in "5 Pillars Made Plain" - [Pillar 5: Who Can Perform Hajj (Pilgrimage)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-5-who-can-perform-hajj-pilgrimage.md) - [Pillar 5: Where do Muslims Perform Hajj (Pilgrimage)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-5-where-do-muslims-perform-hajj-pilgrimage.md) - [Pillar 5: When do Muslims Go On Hajj (Pilgrimage)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-5-when-do-muslims-go-hajj-pilgrimage.md) - [Pillar 5: Why do Muslims Perform Hajj (Pilgrimage)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-5-why-do-muslims-perform-hajj-pilgrimage.md) - [Pillar 5: What is Hajj (Pilgrimage)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-5-what-is-hajj-pilgrimage.md) - [Pillar 5: Introduction to Hajj (Pilgrimage)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-5-introduction-to-hajj-pilgrimage.md) - [Pillar 4: Where Do Muslims Fast? | Convert Resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-4-where-do-muslims-fast.md) - [Pillar 4: Why Do Muslims Fast? | Convert Resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-4-why-do-muslims-fast.md) - [Pillar 4: What is the Purpose of Fasting? | Convert Resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-4-what-is-the-purpose-of-fasting.md) - [Pillar 4: Who Should Fast? | Convert Resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-4-who-should-fast.md) - [Pillar 4: Intro to Fasting | Convert Resources](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-4-intro-to-fasting.md) - [Pillar 3: Zakat Al-Fitr](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-zakat-al-fitr.md) - [Pillar 3: Where Should We Give Zakat (Almsgiving)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-where-should-we-give-zakat-almsgiving.md) - [Pillar 3: Who receives Zakat (Almsgiving)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-who-receives-zakat-almsgiving.md) - [Pillar 3: When do we give Zakat (Almsgiving)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-when-do-we-give-zakat-almsgiving.md) - [Pillar 3: Why do we give Zakat (Almsgiving)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-why-do-we-give-zakat-almsgiving.md) - [Pillar 3: What is Zakat (Almsgiving)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-what-is-zakat-almsgiving.md) - [Pillar 3: Intro to Zakat (Almsgiving)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-3-intro-to-zakat-almsgiving.md) - [Pillar 2: Where Can Muslims Pray?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-2-where-can-muslims-pray.md) - [Pillar 2: When Do We Pray?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-2-when-do-we-pray.md) - [Pillar 2: Who Should Pray?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-2-who-should-pray.md) - [Pillar 2: Why do we pray?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-2-why-do-we-pray.md) - [Pillar 2: What is Prayer?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-2-what-is-prayer.md) - [Intro to Pillar 2: Prayer](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/intro-to-pillar-2-prayer.md) - [Pillar 1: Why Do We Make the Shahada (Testimony of Faith)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-1-why-do-we-make-the-shahada-testimony-of-faith.md) - [Pillar 1: Where Should We Make the Shahada (Testimony of Faith)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-1-where-should-we-make-the-shahada-testimony-of-faith.md) - [Pillar 1: When Should We Make the Shahada (Testimony of Faith)?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/when-should-we-make-the-shahada-testimony-of-faith.md) - [Pillar 1: Who is the Shahada (Testimony of Faith) For?](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/pillar-1-who-is-the-shahada-the-testimony-of-faith-for.md) - [Intro to Pillar 1: Shahada (Testimony of Faith)](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/five-pillars-of-islam/intro-to-pillar-1-shahada-testimony-of-faith.md)