Muslim Fasting Holidays

[reeses16 8]

Good morning! Can someone tell me in general when are the major Muslim fasting holidays/periods? Also, are there any days of the week that Muslims fast?

Background: I'm working on a project looking at diet in urban Ethiopia...its 50/50 Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox. Ethiopian Orthodox people fast on Wednesday and Fridays, and there are prolonged periods (40+ days) of fasting as well. Based on what I know about Ethiopian Orthodox practice, I'm thinking the assessments could be done between June-Sept, but I need to figure Muslim practice during this time.

Thanks in advance!

[NicEgypt 0]

hello reeses16 ... we have 1 month only in the year we fasting order RAMADAN ... but we have day's called SUNNA we take this from prophet mohamed he was usualy fast Monday and Thursday but this not order , and also we can fast eny day we want this not order and also we can fast day called ARAFA this in ALHAG . so add in ur info muslim fast in RAMADAN ONLY ORDER FROM ALLAH , other day's we fasting this sunna i hope u understand me good luck

[reeses16 8]

Thank you very much for your reply!

[UmmSqueakster 54]

You may want to seek out some ethiopian muslims to ask about what the common practices are in their country. I don't think we have any here. Just about all muslims fast during Ramadan, but the adherence to extra fasts differs depending on the location.

The basics of Fasting - all fasts, be they required or voluntary, are performed the same. Just the days they happen on are different.

There are several voluntary fasts that were practiced by the Prophet (saws):

6 days of Shawwal - Shawwal is the month following Ramadan

Fasting Mondays and Thursdays

The first 10 days of Dhull Hijja - which we are coming up to shortly.

Fast of Dawud - the most rigorous. Basically fasting every other day, one day on, one day off.

Middle 3 days of each lunar month

Muharam and Shaban

Ashura - the 10th of Muharram (commemorates passover for sunnis)

Here's the hijri (islamic) calendar for 2008 and 2009

Ramadan in Ethiopia:

Webisode 7 - talks about Ramadan in Ethiopia. Haven't watched it.

I'd google ramadan and ethiopia and see if you can find out any specific customs that they celebrate with. Those really differ depending on the country.

If you're going to be doing assessments from June to September, that should cover Ramadan. Since our calendar is lunar, months move up ~12 days each year. Ramadan will be roughly from August 22 through September 21st, plus or minus a few days in either direction.

I tried to link most of the information here from shafi'i sources, as I believe most ethiopians follow the shafi'i madhab.

Edited November 24, 2008 by rahma