Suhoor, Imsak and Iftar: Ramadan Fasting Times Explained

Suhoor is the meal eaten before dawn to sustain you through the day's fast. The Prophet ﷺ encouraged it, saying there is blessing in it, even if it is only a sip of water. There is no fixed start time for Suhoor — you may eat through the night — but it must finish before the fast begins at dawn. In practice, most people eat Suhoor in the last hour or so before Fajr so the food and water last as long as possible.

Imsak literally means “to hold back.” On many timetables it appears a few minutes (commonly around 10) before the Fajr time. It is a voluntary precaution: a small safety margin so that you stop eating and drinking comfortably before true dawn actually arrives, rather than at the last possible second. The fast itself technically begins at dawn (Fajr / subh sadiq), not at Imsak — so Imsak is a cushion, not a separate obligation. If you are still finishing water when Imsak passes but Fajr has not yet entered, scholars of the majority view consider the fast valid; the margin simply keeps you on the safe side.

The fast begins at the entry of Fajr, the true dawn, when the first horizontal light spreads across the horizon. This is the same moment the Fajr prayer window opens. From this point until sunset, a fasting person abstains from food, drink and marital relations. Because Fajr is defined by a twilight angle rather than the clock, its time shifts by a minute or two each day and varies by city and season — see how prayer times are calculated for the astronomy behind it.

Iftar is the breaking of the fast, and it occurs at Maghrib — the moment the sun has fully set below the horizon. Not a minute before. The Prophet ﷺ taught that people “remain well as long as they hasten to break the fast,” so it is recommended to break it promptly at Maghrib, traditionally with dates and water, followed by the Maghrib prayer. On a MawaqitGo timetable, your Iftar time is simply your Maghrib time. In some official schedules (for example Turkey and Indonesia) a small safety margin is already built into the published Maghrib, which is another reason to use official local times during Ramadan.

Putting it together, a fasting day looks like this: eat Suhoor overnight; stop by Imsak (or at the latest by Fajr); the fast runs from Fajr to Maghrib; break your fast at Maghrib (Iftar). Everything you need is on the daily timetable for your city — MawaqitGo also shows a dedicated Ramadan view with Suhoor and Iftar highlighted during the month.

During the rest of the year, a one- or two-minute difference between prayer-time engines rarely matters. In Ramadan it can, because the exact dawn and sunset bound the fast. That is why MawaqitGo serves the official published timetable wherever a national authority issues one, and validated calculation everywhere else. If your community follows a specific local mosque or council, always defer to it for the start and end of your fast.