Essential dos and don’ts for Muslims fasting in Ramadan
BY Idris Shehu
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is here again. For the next 29 to 30 days, Muslim faithful across the globe must abstain from food, drinks and sexual relations from the dawn till sunset. All adult Muslims are expected to observe the exercise of piety except those who are sick, travelling, menstruating, or are very old.
In between Sahur and Iftar, Muslims are obligated to supplement their fasting with the five daily prayers while keeping bad intentions from their minds.
With the exercise hinged on the sun’s rising and setting, it’s natural that countries around the world experience varying durations of fasting during the day.
The number of daylight hours differs from country to country. This means Muslims living closer to the Arctic, where the sunlight can resist into midnight due to the summer solstice, can observe fasting for over 18 hours. Muslims in countries like Norway, Canada, and Greenland experience this a lot. For example, in 2014, in Iqaluit, a city in northern Canada, midnight sunrise meant people ate Sahur before 1:30am and didn’t break their fast until 11pm — that was over 20 hours of fasting.
However, countries in the lower hemisphere fast for an average of 11 hours.
The 2022 Ramadan would not be any different. According to Islamify, countries in the northern hemisphere will experience close to 18 hours of fasting, while others far to the south have 13 hours.
Below are the estimated fasting hours in some countries across different regions in the world:
Norway: 17 hours 33 minutes
UK: 16 hours 7 minutes
Turkey: 15 hours 1 minute
US: 14 hours 40 minutes
Albania: 14 hours 29 minutes
Algeria: 14 hours 10 minutes
Palestine: 14 hours 4 minutes
Saudi Arabia: 13 hours 59 minutes
Pakistan: 13 hours 55 minutes
India: 13 hours 46 minutes
Hong Kong: 13 hours 39 minutes
Nigeria: 13 hours 33 minutes
Mexico: 13 hours 30 minutes
Senegal: 13 hours 29 minutes
Columbia: 13 hours 26 minutes
Indonesia: 13 hours 16 minutes
New Zealand: 13 hours 1 minute
Australia: 12 hours 32 minutes
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