Ramadhan

12.02.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 8th Sep 2008

As some of you may know the Islamic month of Ramadhan started on 1st September 2008 for many Muslims.

Ramadhan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is most well known by people as the month in which Muslims fast. According to Islam Ramadhan is the most religious month of the year and God increases the rewards people receive for good deeds.

For Muslims fasting during the month of Ramadhan is compulsory as long you are sane and mature. This means that Muslims will stop eating before dawn and will only start eating again after sunset. Fasting in Islam means preventing yourself from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse.

As I have previously mentioned there are a number of different Muslim groups and the views of the different groups on Islam and the way Muslims should live their lives can be very different in some cases.

Another thing to take into account is that the different cultures from which Muslims come from also influence the way in which people follow Islam, therefore others beliefs, opinions and views of Ramadhan may vary from what you have read above.

The major impact that Ramadhan has on my life is that rather then having breakfast at a normal time of 6/7 am during Ramadhan I have a breakfast like meal before dawn which at the moment is about 4am and then rather then having lunch and junk during the day I don't eat till after sunset which at the moment will be around 8pm. Also in Ramadhan many Muslims perform a special prayer later in the evening at a mosque therefore rather then spending the evenings watching TV, catching up on my emails or just lazying around during Ramadhan I will be at the mosque for about ninety minutes each evening from around 9:30 onwards.

With today being the eighth day of Ramadhan, Eid will be on either Tuesday 30th September or Wednesday 1st October depending on the sighting of the new moon on Monday 29th September.