Ramadan Log

The month

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, the month in which the Quran was first revealed. Fasting through it, from dawn until sunset, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29 or 30 days, from one sighting of the new crescent moon to the next.

The Islamic year follows the moon and is ten or eleven days shorter than the solar year, so Ramadan comes earlier each year and moves through all the seasons. The Quran gives the fast in the verse below, quoted in the translation Marmaduke Pickthall published in 1930:

The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur'ân, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, (let him fast the same) number of other days. Allah desireth for you ease; He desireth not hardship for you...

The Quran, Surah 2 (The Cow), verse 185, translated by Marmaduke Pickthall (1930)

The five columns

Each day of the month has a box in each column:

• Fast: from the meal before dawn, suhur, to iftar at sunset.
• Night prayer: the extra prayers of Ramadan nights. Sunni mosques pray taraweeh together, often reciting the whole Quran over the month. Shia Muslims pray salat al-layl on their own. Either one goes in this column.
• Quran: your own reading for the day, such as one of its thirty parts.
• Sadaqah: charity given, of any size.
• Dhikr: remembrance of God, in whatever form you keep it.

How the module works

Thirty numbered rows, one for each day, and five columns to tick. It goes on the monthly spread and fills most of the page.

A fast missed for illness or travel is made up later, as the verse says, so leave that box empty and mark it on the day you make it up. The last ten rows are the last ten nights, when many look for Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power.