Suhoor and Iftar Times Explained for Ramadan 2027

Every Ramadan timetable comes down to two moments each day: the time you must stop eating and the time you may eat again. The Qur'an sets both. Eat and drink, the meaning of 2:187 says, until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct from the black thread, then complete the fast until the night. Dawn opens the fast; night (sunset) closes it. Everything else on the table, imsak, sehri end, iftar, is a label for one of those two moments or a precaution around it.

Suhoor ends at Fajr (true dawn)

Suhoor is the pre-dawn meal. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to take suhoor because there is blessing in it (Sahih al-Bukhari 1923; Sahih Muslim 1095). He also described the companions eating suhoor and then standing for the Fajr prayer with only the time of about fifty verses in between, which tells us the meal was late, not at midnight.

The deadline is true dawn (al-fajr al-sadiq): the first spreading light along the eastern horizon, which begins the Fajr prayer time. It is not sunrise, and it is not the earlier "false dawn", a thin vertical glow that fades. For a timetable, true dawn is computed as the moment the sun's centre is a fixed angle below the horizon, 18° for most of the world, 15° in the ISNA method, 20° in Indonesia and Singapore, and so on. Our page on Fajr and true dawn explains the angle in detail.

What "imsak" on the timetable means

Many timetables print an imsak line a few minutes before Fajr. It is a precaution: stop eating by imsak so that you are not still chewing when dawn breaks. The width of the margin is a local convention:

• Turkey (Diyanet): the imsak line is the Fajr time; there is no separate earlier line.
• Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, many Arab countries: imsak is printed 10 minutes before Subuh/Fajr.
• South Asia: sehri tables often show "sehri ends" a few minutes before Fajr; many communities use 5 to 10 minutes.

The fast itself begins at Fajr in all schools. Imsak is advice, not a second legal boundary. We give you a selector so the margin can match your local custom; see imsak explained.

Iftar begins at sunset (Maghrib)

You may break the fast as soon as the sun has set. Legally, sunset means the upper edge of the sun's disc has disappeared below the horizon, not when the sky goes dark and not when the first star appears. In timetable terms, sunset is calculated for the sun's centre at about 0.833° below the horizon, which accounts for the sun's radius and the bending of light near the horizon.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said people will remain in goodness as long as they hasten to break the fast (Sahih al-Bukhari 1957; Sahih Muslim 1098). So the sunnah is to eat promptly at Maghrib, then pray, rather than waiting for the sky to darken. Ja'fari (Shia) practice delays Maghrib until the eastern redness has gone, usually 10 to 20 minutes after sunset; timetables that follow the Tehran or Qum method already include this.

How our timetables are computed

For each city we calculate the sun's position for every day of Ramadan, then apply the method used by the local authority. The steps are:

1. Solar noon from the city's longitude, time zone and the equation of time.
2. Sunset when the sun's centre reaches 0.833° below the horizon; that is Maghrib and iftar.
3. True dawn when the sun's centre reaches the method's Fajr angle below the horizon (e.g. 18°); that is Fajr and the end of suhoor.
4. Imsak = Fajr minus your chosen precaution (0, 5, 10 or 15 minutes).
5. Rounding and safety margins as the local method specifies, for example some mosque timetables add 2 or 3 minutes after sunset.

The method and angles used are shown above each table. For the general theory, see how prayer times are calculated and the table of methods. If your mosque publishes its own timetable, follow it in your mosque; the differences are a few minutes and come from safety margins, not errors.

Worked example: Istanbul, Monday 8 February 2027

Expected first day of Ramadan 1448 (Diyanet's own table):

Fast length: from 06:35 to 18:36 is 12 hours 1 minute. A week later, on 15 February, imsak is 06:27 and Maghrib 18:44, so the fast is 12 hours 17 minutes: the days lengthen by about two minutes a day at Istanbul's latitude in February.

If you use a 10-minute imsak margin on top of this table you would stop eating at 06:25. Diyanet does not add one, because its 18° imsak is already slightly conservative.

Compare London on 15 February 2027 (Moonsighting Committee method): Fajr 05:38, Maghrib 17:15, fast 11 hours 37 minutes. Makkah the same day: Fajr 05:34, Maghrib 18:18, fast 12 hours 44 minutes.

Practical tips

• Set two alarms: one to wake for suhoor, one 15 minutes before imsak as a "finish up" reminder.
• Drink water last, right up to imsak; eat slower-digesting food earlier. See healthy suhoor.
• Break the fast on the stated Maghrib minute, with dates and water if you can, pray Maghrib, then eat the main meal. The sunnah of iftar has the dua and the order.
• Print the month once and pin it in the kitchen. Our Ramadan timetable has a printable view.

Dates on this page are expected; the actual first day in your country depends on moon sighting or the local authority and may differ by a day.