What is Ramadan and How Do Muslims Observe it?

FILE - Officials are silhouetted as they use a telescope to scan the horizon for a crescent moon that will determine the beginning of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, March. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)
FILE - Officials are silhouetted as they use a telescope to scan the horizon for a crescent moon that will determine the beginning of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, March. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)
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What is Ramadan and How Do Muslims Observe it?

FILE - Officials are silhouetted as they use a telescope to scan the horizon for a crescent moon that will determine the beginning of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, March. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)
FILE - Officials are silhouetted as they use a telescope to scan the horizon for a crescent moon that will determine the beginning of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, March. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

Observant Muslims the world over will soon be united in a ritual of daily fasting from dawn to sunset as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starts. For Muslims, it's a time of increased worship, charity and good deeds. Socially, it often brings families and friends together in festive gatherings around meals to break their fast. Ramadan is followed by Eid al-Fitr.

This year, Ramadan comes as the latest Israel-Hamas war has killed thousands of Palestinians, left much of Gaza in ruins and created a humanitarian catastrophe, with many Palestinians there, especially in the devastated northern region, scrambling for food to survive. Some Muslims have been brainstorming how to remain mindful of the Palestinians’ plight during Ramadan, including through making donations, saying prayers or incorporating Palestinian traditional symbols in how they mark the holy month.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; the month cycles through the seasons.
The start of the month traditionally depends on the sighting of the crescent moon; this year, the first day is expected to be on or around March 11.

Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, along with the profession of faith, prayer, almsgiving, and pilgrimage.

The daily fast in Ramadan includes abstaining from all food and drink. Muslims typically stream into mosques for congregational prayers and dedicate more time for religious contemplation and the reading of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
Charity is a hallmark of Ramadan. Among other ways of giving, many seek to provide iftar for the needy, distributing Ramadan boxes filled with pantry staples, handing out warm meals alongside such things as dates and juice or helping hold free communal meals.
Muslims eat a pre-dawn meal, called “suhoor,” to hydrate and nurture their bodies ahead of the daily fast.



Droughts in Iraq Endanger Buffalo, and Farmers' Livelihoods

A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
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Droughts in Iraq Endanger Buffalo, and Farmers' Livelihoods

A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Iraq’s buffalo population has more than halved in a decade as the country's two main rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, suffer severe droughts that endanger the livelihood of many farmers and breeders.
"People have left ... We are a small number of houses remaining," said farmer Sabah Ismail, 38, who rears buffalo in the southern province of Dhi Qar.
"The situation is difficult ... I had 120 to 130 buffalo; now I only have 50 to 60. Some died, and we sold some because of the drought," said Ismail while tending his herd.
Buffalo have been farmed for centuries in Iraq for their milk, and are mentioned in ancient Sumerian inscriptions from the region.
According to Iraqi marshland experts, the root causes of the water crisis driving farmers out of the countryside are climate change, upstream damming in Türkiye and Iran, outdated domestic irrigation techniques and a lack of long-term management plans.
The country has also endured decades of warfare.
Located within the cultivable lands known as the Fertile Crescent that have been farmed for millennia, the Iraqi landscape has suffered from upstream damming of the Tigris and Euphrates and lower rainfall, threatening the lifestyle of farmers like Ismail and leading many to move to the cities.
Iraqi marshland expert Jassim al-Assadi told Reuters that the number of buffalo in Iraq had fallen since 2015 from 150,000 to fewer than 65,000.
The decline is "mostly due to natural reasons: the lack of needed green pastures, pollution, illness ... and also farmers refraining from farming buffalos due to scarcity of income," al-Assadi said.
A drastic decline in crop production and a rise in fodder prices have also left farmers struggling to feed their animals.
The difficulty of maintaining a livelihood in Iraq's drought-stricken rural areas has contributed to growing migration towards the country's already-choked urban centers.
"This coming summer, God only knows, the mortality rate may reach half," said Abdul Hussain Sbaih, 39, an Iraqi buffalo breeder.