All you need to know about Iftar and UK prayer times for month of Ramadan 2024
Ramadan is due to start on Monday, March 11 and for Muslims across the globe, the coming month is a sacred time for worship and fasting. Lasting 29 to 30 days, this period offers Muslims an opportunity for devotion, reflection and self-improvement.
The month of Ramadan is the holiest month of the Islamic year, it marks the time when the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims around the world mark the occasion by fasting during daylight hours. This means Muslims observing the fast abstain from eating, drinking or engaging in sexual relations during the duration of the fast.
Muslims observing Ramadan also increase spiritual and devotional acts such as prayer, donating to charity and strengthening family ties. Some people are exempt from the fast however and the old, the sick, travellers, young children and women who are breastfeeding or menstruating are not required to observe the fast.
It is a time of community in the Muslim faith with adherents encouraged to reach out and share their food with friends, neighbours and family as well as reaching out to those who may be fasting alone, in order to share their experiences of the Ramadan fast.
As the Islamic calendar is based around the lunar cycle, the Holy month of Ramadan changes by approximately ten days each year. This year, Ramadan is expected to begin on Monday March 11, 2024, depending on the sighting of the moon.
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The Islamic calendar is based on lunar cycles, not the Gregorian calendar and Ramadan ends either after sighting the new crescent moon that indicates the arrival of the 10th month or after Ramadan’s 30th day.
A child helps with handing out food to visiting guests in preparation for the breaking of fast at East London Mosque, April 12, 2023 (Getty Images)As the moon is sighted at slightly different times depending where you are in the country, the charity Islamic Relief has created a handy guide showing the precise times the fast is predicted to start and end each day for different cities in the UK.
During Ramadan, Muslims eat Shuur, the morning meal, taken just before dawn which marks the start of that day’s fast, then at sunset the meal of Iftar is eaten, to break the fast. In countries farther from the equator, where days and nights vary in length according to the season, this can mean people going for more than 12 hours without food.
Every night during the month of Ramadan the Tarawih is prayed, it is longer than normal prayers with large portions of the Qur’an read aloud. During the last ten days and nights of Ramadan some Muslims perform Itikaaf, staying at a mosque for a certain number of days and nights without leaving to focus on worship.
Iftar and UK prayer times for month of daily fasting in LondonAnother key part of Ramadan is Zakat ul Fitr, when all Muslims who can afford to give to charity before the Eid prayer is offered. The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid, which is the first day of the 10th month of the Islamic calendar.
More information about Ramadan can be found on the website of the Muslim Council of Britain and a comprehensive timetable of fasting times throughout the month can be found on Islamic Relief’s website.
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