Iftar, or Ftour, corresponds to the evening meal and therefore at the time of breaking the fast in Muslims during Ramadan. One of the keys to this month of deprivation today.
Ramadan is an essential period for several million Muslims in France each year. Among the daily rituals of this month of fasting and spirituality, Iftar, also called Ftour, therefore holds a very special place. This is the name given to the meal taken at the time of breaking the fast every day during Ramadan. A moment sometimes impatiently awaited, after 12 to 13 hours of deprivation.
Throughout Ramadan, during the Iftar, it is again possible to drink and eat, until the dawn the next day. Muslims according to Ramadan’s rules are particularly attentive at the time of this key sequence of the day, especially since it varies daily, depending on the time of sunset. With the schedules of the five daily prayers, the Iftar schedule is set according to a specific calendar which differs from one city to another.
Iftar therefore allows Muslims who respect Ramadan to take their meal, which is also associated with the so -called “Maghreb” prayer. Like the suhûr, “dawn meal” (not to be confused with the sunrise), IFTAR is a traditional meal that regulate ancestral customs. This meal must remain light, as a result of the meal taken in the morning before starting the fast again. It is a dinner that marks the end of a day of physical and mental asceticism.
During the month of Ramadan, the Iftar is set at variable hours depending on the sunset time. The time to break the fast, or “iftar”, moves from one to two minutes every day, depending on the sunset. In question: the days that extend as the summer solsticeposting the nightfall.
This key moment of Ramadan is also different from one city to another. From Lille to Marseille via Paris, Lyon, or Toulouse, the schedules can thus vary by several minutes. When Ramadan takes place in the spring, the time change also comes to artificially prolong the evening from the last weekend in March.
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Iftar is generally “composed of sweet fruits and derivatives, as well as plant fats, which quickly calm the hunger and fatigue of the day”, writes the specialized blogger al-Kanz on his website. A few dozen grams of chocolate or half a bowl of almonds, hazelnuts or nuts, can be followed by two fresh or cooked fruits, compote or dried fruit.
During the Iftar, the drink, above all, must be served at will, without sugar or milk. The objective: to rehydrate and eliminate the toxins of the day.
Corollary of Iftar, the IMSAK intervenes for its part at the end of the night, when the resumption of fasting approaches. This term, which can be translated literally by “abstain”, designates a period during which one must prepare to fast, before the suhûr, the meal of the dawn. This is a kind of safety margin during which one can still, for a few minutes, eat and drink, before interrupting for the day.