Your first Ramadan as a new Muslim: how to fast, step by step

What fasting is, and who must fast

Fasting Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. Allah says: “O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain taqwa” (Qur'an 2:183). It is obligatory on every Muslim who has reached puberty and is sane.

If you have recently become Muslim, you do not make up the fasts of the years before Islam. You start from your first Ramadan as a Muslim. Whoever fasts Ramadan out of faith and hoping for reward has their past sins forgiven.

Before Ramadan: try a practice fast

The course's practice task for its first fasting lesson: find out when next Ramadan is expected, and plan one practice fast before it on a Monday or a Thursday. Fasting on those days is Sunnah, so the practice is rewarded too.

Ramadan begins when the new crescent moon is sighted, or, if it is not sighted, when the month before it (Sha'ban) completes thirty days; it is not started by calculation. Do not fast the day before Ramadan “just in case”.

Your fasting day, step by step

1. 1Intend the fast at night, before dawn. One intention at the start of Ramadan covers the whole month; renewing it each night is recommended.
2. 2Eat Suhur, the pre-dawn meal, even if it is only a sip of water: there is blessing in it. It is Sunnah, not obligatory, and best eaten late, close to dawn.
3. 3From true dawn, stop eating and drinking. Allah says “eat and drink until the white thread becomes distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn; then complete the fast until the night” (Qur'an 2:187).
4. 4Guard your tongue during the day. Avoid foul speech and shouting; if someone insults you, say “I am fasting”. Make Du'a: the Du'a of a fasting person is not rejected.
5. 5Break your fast promptly as soon as you are sure the sun has set: with fresh dates, otherwise dried dates in an odd number, otherwise a few sips of water.

At Iftar the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Dhahabadh-dhama'u, wabtallatil-'uruqu, wa thabatal-ajru in sha'allah” (The thirst has gone, the veins are moistened, and the reward is established, if Allah wills).

What breaks the fast

• Eating or drinking on purpose after dawn, and anything that reaches the stomach and counts as food or drink even if not through the mouth, such as feeding injections.
• Intercourse during a fasting day. It breaks the fast and carries a heavy expiation as well as making up the day; the course explains it in outline.
• Releasing semen by choice. The day is made up, with no expiation.
• Making yourself vomit. The day is made up.
• Cupping (Hijamah), or having blood taken from a vein or donating blood.
• Deciding to break the fast before sunset, even if nothing is eaten.

What does not break the fast

• Eating or drinking by mistake. Stop as soon as you remember, and complete your fast. It still counts.
• A wet dream.
• Vomiting that overcomes you.
• Bleeding from a wound, a tooth extraction or a nosebleed.
• Using a siwak (a tooth-stick) at any time of the day.
• Making Wudu, without overdoing the rinsing of the mouth and nose.

If you take regular medicine, ask a scholar and your doctor before Ramadan.

If you cannot fast

Allah says “whoever among you is ill or on a journey, then a number of other days” (Qur'an 2:184).

• If you are ill and fasting is hard, and you hope to recover, you may break the fast and make the days up when you are well.
• If you are elderly and can no longer fast, or ill with no expectation of recovery, you do not fast or make up. Instead you feed one poor person for each day missed. For the measure in detail, ask a scholar.
• On a journey of about 80 km or more you may break the fast and make up the days later. If fasting is hard on you, breaking it is better.
• During a period or post-natal bleeding a woman must not fast. She makes up the fasts later, but not the prayers.
• If you are pregnant or breastfeeding and fear harm to yourself or your baby, you may break the fast and make the days up later. If your fear was for your baby, you also feed one poor person for each day.

Make up missed days before the next Ramadan; sooner is better, and they need not be on consecutive days. Breaking a Ramadan fast without a valid excuse is a grave sin: repent, ask Allah's forgiveness, and make the day up straight after Ramadan.

Making the most of the month, and Eid

In Ramadan, give charity, read plenty of Qur'an, feed people who are fasting, and pray at night, striving most in the last ten nights. Whoever stands in prayer on Laylat al-Qadr out of faith and hoping for reward has their past sins forgiven.

Before the Eid prayer comes Zakat al-Fitr, a small charity of staple food, such as rice or dates, paid for each person in the household; the course teaches it in its own lesson. Fasting on the two Eid days is forbidden.

Fasting is Level 3 of the course: four lessons, each under ten minutes. You can see them all on the course syllabus. If you are new to the prayer as well, start with How to pray for beginners; for the order of everything else, see I just became Muslim: what do I do now?