The Shortest and Longest Fasting Hours

 

New York, 15 Ramadhan 1438/10 Juni 2017 (MINA) – The holy month of Ramadan has started. Around 22 percent of the world’s population, or 1.6 billion people, are fasting from sunrise to sundown.

However, fasting hours differ from place to place.

While people in most regions in Saudi Arabia have a 15-hour fasting, Muslims in the Ochaya region of Argentina fast for no more than nine hours a day. But Muslims living in Lapland region of Finland have the longest fasting period as the sun sets only for 55 minutes. This means that the fasting period will reach 23 hours and 5 minutes, Saudi Gazzete reported.

Considering the long sunlight hours, Muslims in Lapland follow the fasting timetable of the nearest Islamic country, Turkey.

The average fasting hours in the Scandinavian countries is about 20 hours.
Muslims in Iceland and Greenland have fasting hours of about 21 hours.

However, a fatwa issued last year allowed Muslims in the Artic region and northern parts of Norway to follow the fasting hours of Makkah or the nearest Muslim country.

In Norway the fasting may go up to 19 hours.

However, Muslims in Britain still fast for 18 hours and in Canada for approximately 17 hours.

In Sydney, Australia, in the southern part of the globe, Muslims fast for 11 hours 35 minutes.

Kazakhstan has the longest fast hours in Asia as per our calculations with 18 hours and 12 minutes between Fajr and Maghreb.(T/RE1/RS5)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)