—becomes a cause for waking from sleep at the pre-dawn hour, the time set aside for seeking forgiveness and making supplication. During that hour the Lord, Glorified and Exalted, descends to the lowest heaven and calls out to His servants so that they may ask Him for their needs and desires.

Another blessing of sahūr is that it leads one to perform the dawn prayer in congregation and within its most virtuous time. For this reason you will notice that the worshippers attending Fajr during Ramadan are more numerous than in other months, since they have already risen for the pre-dawn meal.

4 – A Muslim should not carry out his ordinary affairs bereft of a righteous intention. Rather, he must train himself so that his routine actions become worship of Allah Most High, by consciously seeking these lofty purposes until all his conduct is transformed into devotion to Allah and a source of “good” and “blessing” that returns to him in reward and merit. I ask Allah to grant us and all Muslims whatever draws us nearer to His good pleasure. Āmīn. And may blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad.

5 – Sahūr also distinguishes us from the People of the Book. In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (1096) ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The difference between our fasting and the fasting of the People of the Book is the pre-dawn meal.”

The Lawgiver wishes us not to resemble the unbelievers, whether in acts of worship or in customs. Should a Muslim imitate the unbelievers in their religious rites, this may lead to polytheism and disbelief; and if he imitates them in their habits by approving of their practices and customs, that imitation may progress to inward conformity with them, resulting in perdition.

6 – The Prophet’s statement, “for there is blessing in sahūr,” shows that blessing can reside in created things in proportion to the power, capacities, and benefits Allah has bestowed on them. A person may be blessed through his knowledge, his physical strength, his character, his wealth, or his social standing, whereby good is produced and others derive benefit. What is prohibited, however, is seeking blessing from a created being’s body—by taking barakah from his physical traces or his garments,