How to prepare for Ramadan 2027: a gentle plan for the next three months

Ramadan 1448 is expected to begin on Monday 8 February 2027, or a day later where a local sighting is needed. That is about three months away. Three months is enough time to arrive ready instead of rushed, if you start small and start now.

This plan walks from today to the first night of tarāwīḥ in four stages. Each stage has a few steps, and all of them are light. You do not need to do everything: pick what fits your life, and keep it.

Why prepare at all?

God gives the reason for fasting in a single verse:

Mindfulness does not switch on at sunset on the first night. It grows out of habits, and habits take weeks. There is also the reward: the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever fasts Ramadan out of faith and in hope of reward has their past sins forgiven (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 38). Many people lose the first week of Ramadan to tiredness and adjusting. Preparing is how you keep that week.

Stage 1, from now to mid-December: settle and steady

1. Count any fasts you owe. Days of Ramadan 2026 missed for illness, travel or your period are made up before the next Ramadan (Qur’an 2:184). Write the number down. Two a week from now is far easier than all of them in Shaʿbān.
2. Steady the five prayers. Fasting and prayer hold each other up, and a steady prayer habit is what the month is built on. If some prayers slip, add one at a time; our guide to keeping the five daily prayers has practical steps.
3. Start a small daily Qur’an portion. Read one page after one prayer each day. It sounds small, but it grows: four pages after each of the five prayers is twenty pages, one juzʾ a day, the whole Qur’an in a month.

Stage 2, Rajab (from mid-December): build

1. Grow the Qur’an portion to a page after every prayer, or two after the prayer you find easiest.
2. Write a duʿāʾ list. Note what you want to ask for in Ramadan, for yourself, your family and the ummah. When the nights come, you will not be searching for words.
3. Decide what your phone will look like in Ramadan. Choose the apps that take your evenings and plan when they rest. In Awwab, the Shield can keep them waiting at each prayer time, so tarāwīḥ and the last ten nights are not lost to a feed.
4. Plan your giving. Decide now how much you want to give in Ramadan and to whom, so it does not depend on how you feel on a busy evening.

Stage 3, Shaʿbān (from about 9 January): warm up

Shaʿbān is the month in which the Prophet ﷺ fasted most outside Ramadan (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1969). When Usāmah ibn Zayd asked him why, he said it is a month people overlook, between Rajab and Ramadan, a month in which deeds are raised to the Lord of the worlds, and that he loved for his deeds to be raised while he was fasting (Sunan al-Nasāʾī 2357, graded ḥasan by al-Albānī).

1. Fast a Monday or a Thursday. Deeds are presented on those days, and the Prophet ﷺ loved to be fasting when they were (Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 747; al-Albānī graded it ṣaḥīḥ). One or two fasts teach your body the rhythm before it counts.
2. Finish any fasts you still owe. ʿĀʾishah used to make up her missed days in Shaʿbān (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1950).
3. Move your sleep earlier. Shift bedtime by fifteen minutes a week, so that waking for suḥūr does not feel like a shock.
4. Cut caffeine slowly. If you rely on coffee or tea, reduce it over a few weeks instead of stopping on the first day of Ramadan.

Stage 4, the last week: arrive gently

1. Do not fast the day or two before “to be safe”. The Prophet ﷺ told people not to, unless it was a fast they already kept regularly (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1914).
2. Plan your first suḥūr. Keep it simple, with water. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Take suḥūr, for in suḥūr there is blessing” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1923).
3. Know when the month starts where you live. Follow your local mosque or national authority. Our page on Ramadan 2027 dates explains why it may be the 8th or the 9th.
4. Prepare for the first night. Tarāwīḥ begins on the evening before the first fast. If you pray at a mosque, check its time; if you pray at home, choose your place.

If you are ill, travelling or unable to fast

Preparing also means knowing the ease God gave. Whoever is ill or travelling may break the fast and make up the days later (Qur’an 2:184). If you have a health condition, speak to your doctor before Ramadan, and ask a scholar you trust about your situation.

Let the app carry the reminders

Awwab marks Ramadan and the other blessed days and reminds you the evening before, keeps your five prayers on time, and has a tasbih and the morning and evening adhkar for the quiet moments in between. It is free, without ads, and in fourteen languages.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Qur’an references open the verse on quran.com and hadith references open the narration on sunnah.com, where you can read the full text. Narrations in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī are accepted as authentic by the scholars of hadith; for other collections the grading is given beside the reference.

1. Qur’an 2:183: fasting prescribed so that you may become mindful of God.
2. Qur’an 2:184: the ill and the traveller make up the days later.
3. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 38: fasting Ramadan out of faith and hope of reward.
4. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1969: fasting most in Shaʿbān.
5. Sunan al-Nasāʾī 2357 (ḥasan per al-Albānī): Shaʿbān, a month people overlook, when deeds are raised.
6. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 747 (ṣaḥīḥ per al-Albānī): deeds presented on Mondays and Thursdays.
7. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1950: ʿĀʾishah making up her fasts in Shaʿbān.
8. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1914: not fasting a day or two before Ramadan.
9. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1923: blessing in suḥūr.