Scholars
Fasting Ramadan
The Ramadan fast: Islam's fourth pillar — abstaining from food and drink from dawn to sunset through the fasting month. Muslims eat suhoor before dawn and break at sunset on dates and water; at night taraweeh prayers follow isha, and in the last ten nights the Night of Power is sought, better than a thousand months. Fasting is not hunger but training — patience for the self, mercy for the hungry, God-consciousness in the heart — and the sick, the traveller and the expectant mother are excused under their own rules. At its end comes Eid al-Fitr: charity given before the prayer and a joy gathering the whole ummah in one day. With this month the community renews itself every year: mosques fill, houses glow, one table joins rich and poor, and Muslims learn each year that their hearts can move together.