Ramadan 2020: Holy Month For Muslims and Its Significance

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and the holy month of fasting. The beginning and end of Ramadan are with the appearance of the new moon. In the year 2020, Ramadan lasts from April 23 to May 23. For Muslims, Ramadan is the period of soul-searching, communal prayer, and reading the Quran. It is a deep belief that God will forgive the past sins for those who will practice fasting, and prayers, with faithful intention. During this holy period of Ramadan, it is broadly considered as an obligation to refrain between dawn and dusk from drinking, eating, and all other immoral activities, which also includes evil thoughts. One can easily ruin his/her fasting, by a bad deed or intention for anyone.

Once the sun is set, everyone gathers to prayer at their homes, and at Mosques, following breaking their fast, with a meal called iftar, which is often shared with family, and friends. One of the major and important food in the iftar meal is a date, as the custom of Muhammad. There are additional prayers, which are practiced at the night time as well, preferring in the Mosques. During the prayers, there are many people, who recite the whole Quran, during the course of the holy month of Ramadan. During the holy month, the work hours are adjusted according to the time of evening prayers, or even reduced in many Muslim majority countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and others.

There could be a few times when one could eat or drink something by mistake at the wrong time, but the lost day could be redone, by putting an extra day to the fasting. There could be many ways to substitute the fasting days, if someone is ill in the holy month, or is unable to do fasting due to any reason. Few ways to substitute fasting could be feeding the poor, carrying some extra fasting days, after usual Ramadan days.

The end of the Holy month of Ramadan fasting is celebrated as Eid-al-Fitr, which is also marked as one of the two major holidays of the Muslims. In most of the communities, Eid-al-Fitr is quite charismatic, where everyone, “especially children's” wears new clothes, gifts are exchanged, graves of the ancestors are visited, and people gather with family and friends, to perform prayer in the Mosques.