Ramadan starts with the new moon, whose appearance three witnesses shall testify in the nearest Shari'a law court.
The Ramadan fast is one of the five pillars, i.e. absolute requirements, of Islam. All Muslim theologians are at one on that point. True Believers shall abstain from food, drink, carnal desires, and evil doings, words and thoughts throughout this lunar month.
Food and drink are forbidden from the instant the first sunray appears to the time when the eye cannot distinguish a white thread from a black one, that is, nightfall.
The fast finishes twenty-nine or thirty solar days later, depending on the day the next new moon appears.
Ramadan was no different from any other month before 610 A.D., when, on a blessed night, heavenly peace and eternity descended on earth to make sacred this, ninth month of the lunar Hegira calendar. It was during that month that Muhammad had the Prophet's call. Archangel Gabriel the messenger of the Almighty descended on him as he was lost in solitary prayer in a cave not far from Mecca to say to the wise and pious man that God had chosen him as Prophet, and reveal unto him the opening lines of the Holy Koran. The Prophet was about forty years of age when he eagerly accepted the revelation.
As the Koran has it, Adam's race is free from satanic temptations throughout Ramadan. That makes the holy month a time of spiritual and bodily purification.
Fasting is compulsory for every adult Muslim of good health and sound mind. Wayfarers are absolved from it to fast thereafter an equal number of days. The insane and certain other invalids are permanently excused from fasting, while children have breaks lest undernourishment destroy the immature body.
Ramadan is an extremely austere fast. It is broken with a mere crumb of bread or gulp of water taken in the daytime, let alone a heretical utterance about the Almighty. The same concerns a man who inhales an infidel's cigarette smoke by chance, or whose face touches water. Even a raindrop or snowflake falling on the lip counts. To expiate the sin, the Muslim is to fast another several days or feed sixty hungry. A single omission of the five compulsory daily prayers also invalidates the fast.
Ramadan traditions and rituals are the same in the entire Muslim world, though every country has slight specifics of the holy month. Even its name is pronounced differently-it is Ramazan with the non-Arabic nations, who follow the Persian pronunciation. Russian Muslims, too, have their own ways in some aspects. Their community is generally considered twenty million strong, though there are other estimations. An overwhelming majority inhabits Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, autonomies on the Volga banks, and North Caucasian republics.
