RAMADAN 2022. The end date of Ramadan and the date of Eid-el-Fitr were confirmed by the Great Mosque of Paris this weekend, following the consultation of the night of doubt. Eid will take place on Monday May 2, as originally announced. Questions / answers on the end of Ramadan…
The essential
- The end of Ramadan 2022 is very close. The Great Mosque of Paris has confirmed in a statement this Saturday evening, around 7 p.m., that this Sunday, May 1, 2022 would be the last day of the month of fasting among Muslims.
- When Ramadan is over, it is the month of shawal (or Chawwal, tenth month of the Muslim calendar) which will begin with the feast of Eid El Fitr. The celebration is therefore fixed for Monday, May 2, 2022.
- The big one Paris Mosque organized a night of doubt this Saturday, April 30, to decide on the end date of Ramadan in France and on the date of Eid el-Fitr. The CFCM, which relies exclusively on astronomical calculations to determine the dates of Ramadan, had already indicated that Eid-el Fitr was set for Monday May 2.
Questions answers
Ramadan fasting 2022: what is siwak?
Brushing your teeth during Ramadan is a unique exercise… The siwak should, for this reason, be used by a large number of Muslim believers. It is an Islamic tool traditionally used to successfully brush your teeth without the risk of swallowing water, during the month of holy fasting. The famous tool comes in the form of a “small chewing stick” which serves both as a toothbrush and toothpaste.
We take stock of the dates of Ramadan in the coming years..
According to astronomical calculations, Ramadan 2023 will take place from Thursday March 23 to Friday April 21, and Ramadan 2024 from Monday March 11 to Tuesday April 9. The date may shift by one day, depending on whether or not the crescent moon at the beginning of the month is taken into account.
Fasting month of Ramadan: what does “Tarawih” mean?
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are encouraged to read the Quran in its entirety. An additional session of common prayers (Tarawih) is therefore set up. It takes place in the evening, in mosques and only at this time of year.
What questions and reflections should be avoided with someone who is doing Ramadan?
Recently, the Voice of the North took an interest in the questions and reflections “that Muslims are tired of hearing” during Ramadan. Here are a few examples: “You still have the right to drink, I hope?”, “Do you eat in secret?”, “I couldn’t…”, or even “You really unwell…”.
Islam, France’s second religion
How many Muslims does France have? According to several studies on the subject, France has between five and six million practicing and non-practicing Muslims. This estimate makes Islam the second largest religion in the country. one of the most recent estimates, conducted in 2019 by the Observatory of Secularism, puts the number of Muslims in France at 4.1 million (about 6% of the total population).
What is the meaning of the word “ramadan” in Arabic?
Today, the month of Ramadan is closely linked in people’s minds to the month of fasting observed by Muslims. But the name of the ninth month of the Hijri calendar was actually given to it long before the very arrival of Islam. Arabic being a semantic language, with roots made up of consonants which mean a precise idea, and from which we create a whole lexical field by adding letters before or after (in general) this “base”… if we analyzes the root of the word composed of the letters rā, mīm and ḍād, we realize that it refers to “summer heat”. Could this mean that the month of Ramadan systematically fell in summer in the pre-Islamic lunisolar calendar? According to The Encyclopedia of Islam, “this question of whether the months in central Arabia were really linked to particular seasons is controversial” since a month whose name etymology could be linked to cold is found only two month of Ramadan.
Ramadan 2022: is sexual relations prohibited for the whole month?
The answer is no: if they are prohibited throughout the day of fasting, it is possible for Ramadan practitioners to have sexual relations from the moment the said fast is broken, that is after sunset.
What is Eid al-Fitr for Muslims?
Eid al-Fitr, or the feast of breaking the fast, is the celebration of the completion of Ramadan. It is celebrated on the first day of the month of Shawwal, the month following that of Ramadan in the moon calendar hijri.
The “zakat al-fitr”, third pillar of Islam
It must have been paid by the end of Ramadan… As the CFCM (French Council for Muslim Worship) reminded us in mid-March, zakat al-fitr alms, “religiously payable by all Muslim family”, is “aimed at the poor regardless of their religious affiliation”. Third pillar of Islam, it went from 5 to 7 euros per person in 2018 (an increase mainly due to inflation).
Ramadan fasting: what happens to those who forget to eat or drink?
There is therefore still a day of deprivation, this Sunday, for Muslims. According to the Havre de savoir association, which has set itself the task of explaining Islam, the fast of those who forget to eat or drink remains valid, and they have “nothing to catch up on” because “the Prophet said “on this subject” ‘whoever eats or drinks while he is in a state of fasting, let him continue his fast because it is God who has fed and watered him'”.
What does Ramadan commemorate?
As a reminder, as Ramadan ends in France this weekend, practicing Muslims have just fasted for a whole month in order to commemorate, as every year, an episode in the story of Islam in particular: the revelation of the Koran. to the prophet Mohammed. This event would have taken place in the year 610, during the “Night of Destiny”.
What is the “Hijri calendar”?
The Muslim calendar, based on the lunar cycle, is called the “Hijri calendar”. Ramadan is its ninth month. The term “Hijri refers to the Hijri of the Prophet of the Muslims, Muhammad, from Mecca to Medina”.
Ramadan dates are closely linked to the Moon
On this day ofnight of doubt” of lunar observation, a traditional practice linked to Islam, and through the content below, you will discover all the facets of the Moon: what its different phases mean; why it can be called pink moonred, blue or even black…
Why is fasting compulsory for Muslims following Ramadan?
Ramadan is a very important period, which finds its origin in the Koran, the sacred text of Islam. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have visited Muhammad during the “night of fate“, that is to say, the 27th evening of Ramadan. If originally the word Ramadan designated the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, today it is linked to the practice of fasting. This practice is mentioned in the Koran, in the second sura: “O believers! Fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so you will attain piety.” The text thus refers to Jews and Christians who observe Yom Kippur and Lent.
The Paris Mosque welcomes both methods of setting the date
The Mosque of Paris welcomes both methods to set the end date of Ramadan. In a new press release published online this Saturday, April 30, she points out that the religious commission took two elements into account: “The results of work on scientific calculation and universal astronomical data for the determination of the beginning and end of the month blessed with Ramadan” and “the result of the observation of the moon in France and around the world”. “The Muslim federations wish to recall that the combination of these two methods contributes to the unity of Muslims”, it is added.
Learn more
The Great Mosque of Paris, which is associated with the Coordination made up of the four Muslim Federations (FFAIACA, GMP, MF and RMF), removed the doubt this Saturday, with the organization of a “night of doubt”. She followed the CFCM, which had already indicated that the end of Ramadan was for Sunday May 1. The Great Mosque of Paris had indicated exactly the same thing in a press release published in March, writing that Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, takes place on May 2. But the said Coordination wished to follow the tradition of the observation of the Moon to confirm this position.
Eid al-Fitr is one of the most important holidays for observant Muslims. As every year, the breaking of the fast is celebrated on this occasion by Muslims, between friends, families and relatives and marked by an important prayer in the morning. For Eid 2022, it has been recommended by the Mosque of Paris that the Zakat, ie alms for breaking the fast, be 7 euros.
Two methods coexist in France to determine the beginning of the month of Ramadan: traditional lunar observation and astronomical calculations. In its statement of March 15, the Coordination of National Muslim Federations (FFAICA, GMP, MF and RMF) meeting at the Great Mosque of Paris, specified that these two methods are “complementary”. She adds on this point that during the “Night of Doubt”, the “Theological Commission of the Coordination (…) takes into consideration the results of the work on the adoption of scientific calculation and universal astronomical data for the determination of the beginning and end of the blessed month of Ramadan”.
Regarding the representation of Muslims in France, an important change took place in March 2021, with the split between the French Council for Muslim Worship, the institution representing the Muslim faith in France and four of its former Muslim federations (the famous FFAIACA, GMP, MF and RMF). Since this thunderclap in the sky of Islam in France, the CFCM has once again relied on scientific data to formalize the dates of Ramadan, several weeks in advance. It is also the modus operandi followed by the Muslim Theological Council of France (CTMF, a body of imams particularly close to the Muslim Brotherhood, but who do not replace the representative bodies).