Ramadan Ramadan is the most sacred holiday of the Muslim year and is mandated by the Qur'an (2:183). It occurs in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is the holy month of fasting. Fasting is considered to be the third pillar or religious obligation of Islam and provides many benefits including learning self-control. This results from a lack of preoccupation with satisfying bodily appetites during the daylight hours. Ramadan is a time of worship, reading the Qur'an, charitable acts, and the purification of individual behavior. This is also the time in which the Qur'an was revealed to Mohammed as guidance for the people.