Ramadan 2023: start and end dates of the month of fasting
The blessed month of Ramadan 2023 - (1444 of the Hijri calendar) is fast approaching and, as every year, many people ask the crucial question of the expected date for this year 2023. What is the Islamic ruling on the projected calculation for the obligation of fasting in the month of Ramadan 2023? How is this information revealed to the Muslims of France and to those of the world? These are all questions we are going to address today.
A reminder of the calendar of the month of Ramadan
Ramadan 2023 will take place around March 23, 2023, whereas it was celebrated on April 2 in 2022. Indeed, every year, millions of Muslims throughout the entire world observe this divine commandment, which is fasting during this lunar month of the Muslim calendar. A blessed and festive period for people of the Muslim faith, it is the time when they abstain from eating, drinking, and having sexual relations from Fajr (dawn) to Maghrib (sunset), as an obligation toward God, who commanded in His Sacred Book, the Quran, that every person, men and women, who is of age and in good health perform it in order to attain piety. The fast of Ramadan is, moreover, one of the five pillars of the Muslim religion.
The four other pillars of Islam are:
- the testimony of faith or profession of faith (the shahada)
- the prayer (the salat)
- the obligatory alms (zakat)
- and finally the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) for those who are able.
Ramadan is a blessed month because it is the month of the Quran, but it is not a sacred month. Only four months are sacred. These are the months of Muharram, Rajab, Dhul Qi'dah, Dhul Hijja.
What does Ramadan mean in Arabic ?
In the book " An approach to the Quran through grammar and lexicon ", one finds a definition of the word Ramadan:
This word encompasses " the idea of heating, cooking, roasting, being burning hot, being consumed, being reduced by fire, roasting on stones or in fire, burning, setting ablaze, being scorching ".
Then it is said in this definition of Ramadan : "the 9th month of the Muslim lunar year, the fast so named because it first occurred during the scorching summer of Arabia".
It nevertheless takes place sometimes in winter and sometimes in summer, since its date moves back by ten to twelve days each year. We will see why at the end of this article.
Is the month of Ramadan mentioned in the Quran ?
What the Quran tells us about the month of Ramadan is found in verse 185 of Surah 2 Al Baqara: "(These days are) the month of Ramadan during which the Quran was sent down as a guidance for the people, and clear proofs of guidance and of the criterion. So whoever among you is present during this month, let him fast! And whoever is ill or on a journey, then let him fast an equal number of other days. -Allah wants ease for you, He does not want hardship for you, so that you may complete the number and that you may proclaim the greatness of Allah for having guided you, and so that you may be grateful!
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ هُدًۭى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَٰتٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَٱلْفُرْقَانِ ۚ فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ ٱلشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ ۖ وَمَن كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍۢ فَعِدَّةٌۭ مِّنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ ۗ يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ بِكُمُ ٱلْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ ٱلْعُسْرَ وَلِتُكْمِلُوا۟ ٱلْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَىٰكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ " (verse 185 in Surah 2 THE COW / AL-BAQARA)
The Night of Destiny, Laylatul Qadr, is also mentioned in the Quran.
This night, during which the nightly prayers are multiplied with devotion in the hope of attaining the forgiveness of Allah and His Graces, is, in the mind of most Muslims, considered to be the 27th night of Ramadan. Yet it is a night that holds so many blessings that in the sunnah the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allah alayhi wa salam, asks us to seek it during the last ten nights.
During Ramadan 2023, it will therefore fall between April 13 and 23, 2023, and Allah alone knows.
A surah of the Quran is specially dedicated to it. It is Surah Qadr (97), of which here are a few verses:
"We have indeed sent it down (the Quran) during the Night of Al-Qadr.
إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَٰهُ فِى لَيْلَةِ ٱلْقَدْرِ " (verse 1 in Surah 97 THE DESTINY / AL-QADR)
"And what will make you know what the Night of Al-Qadr is?
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ " (verse 2 in Surah 97 THE DESTINY / AL-QADR)
"The Night of Al-Qadr is better than a thousand months.
لَيْلَةُ ٱلْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌۭ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍۢ " (verse 3 in Surah 97 THE DESTINY / AL-QADR)
What does the Sunnah say about Ramadan?
The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, teaches us that our fast has the advantage of including a light meal or snack taken before the beginning of the observance of the fast:
According to 'Amr Ibn Al Ass (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (may the prayer of Allah and His peace be upon him) said: " The difference between our fasting and the fasting of the People of the Book is the meal of the suhur ".
(Reported by Muslim in his Sahih no. 1096)
And that this meal holds great blessings for the one who fasts:
According to Al Irbad Ibn Sariya (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (may the prayer of Allah and His peace be upon him) invited me for the suhur (*) during Ramadan, saying: " Come to the blessed meal ".
(Reported by Abu Dawud and authenticated by Shaykh Albani in Sahih Targhib no. 1067)
(*) The suhur is the meal that the one fasting takes in the morning before the beginning of the fast.
Why does the date of Ramadan 2023 change?
Ramadan is a month of the lunar calendar, which comprises 354 days. This is why the date of Ramadan changes and moves back by about ten days each year, because it is determined according to a calendar whose cycles are 29 to 30 days.
This year, Ramadan 2023 will normally take place around March 23, 2023.
That said, one must wait to observe the crescent moon, and not its birth, which can be predicted in advance by calculation, in order to be able to fast Ramadan. The four schools of jurisprudence are unanimous regarding the obligation to observe the crescent moon for the determination of the first day of Ramadan.
In theory, two witnesses must therefore have seen the lunar crescent for the following day to be considered the start date of Ramadan. The Prophet, salla Allah alayhi wa salam, indeed recommended fasting upon sighting the crescent moon on the 29th day of the month of Sha'ban (the lunar month preceding that of Ramadan). Or, failing that, to complete Sha'ban with a 30th day and then enter the month of Ramadan the following day. Indeed, there can in no case be 28 days or 31 days in a lunar month.
There are therefore consultations of the religious authorities during the 29th day of Sha'ban, the famous day known by the name of "day of doubt". This means that if the crescent moon was observed during that evening, any person who is Muslim may fast from the morning.
Otherwise, the following day is to be considered the 30th day of the month of Sha'ban, since there was no sighting with the naked eye of the crescent on the night of doubt. No one fasts that day. The day after will be the start date of Ramadan.
The Prophet said :
"Do not anticipate Ramadan by one or two days. Fast upon sighting [the crescent] and break the fast upon sighting [the crescent], and if the observation is hindered by clouds, complete the count of Sha'ban to thirty days" reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim.
This tradition is, nowadays, managed by the religious authorities of each country. In every corner of the world, tension rises within the Muslim community, which seeks to unite around a single start and end date of the awaited month of fasting, awaited both as a period of devotion and as a period of celebration for young and old. On the occasion of the night of doubt, every Muslim waits throughout the day, and until the evening, for the authorities of his capital to reveal the eagerly awaited information to begin the holy month of Ramadan in full assurance. In France, it is, among others, the authority of the Grand Mosque of Paris that ends the suspense for the French Muslim.
Some countries, however, rely on astronomical calculation methods that make it possible to predict, years in advance, the future start and end dates of Ramadan but also the religious Feasts.
How does Ramadan 2023 end?
Having spent four weeks using their energy in multiplying acts of worship during this blessed month, Muslims have abstained from food, drink, and relations with their spouses in order to discipline their limbs and elevate their soul through the reading of the Holy Quran.
Supplications, water and a few dates have been, at each sunset, their means of breaking the fast. And this month of Ramadan 2023 will end, as every year, with a great Feast called Eid Al Fitr. This corresponds to the first day of the following lunar month called Shawwal, itself also determined by the visibility of the crescent moon during a new night of doubt on the 29th day of Ramadan. They will have until the morning to give as alms the zakat al Fitr.
If the crescent moon is seen, the next day will be Eid Al Fitr and the Muslims will no longer fast. They will prepare to go in the morning to the communal prayer of Eid Al Fitr.
The Feast of the Sacrifice Eid Al Adha (also called Eid al Kabir) is likewise determined by the calculations and/or the obligatory observation of the crescent moon that marks the beginning of the lunar month Dhul Hijja. The Feast of the Sacrifice of the sheep takes place on the 10th day of this month, during which Muslims from all over the world are gathered in Mecca to accomplish their pilgrimage.