Fasting the Day of Arafah is one of the most sought-after voluntary fasts of the year. The question of which day that is only arises because the Islamic month begins by the moon, and the moon is not sighted everywhere on the same evening. If Saudi Arabia begins Dhul Hijjah a day before your country does, the pilgrims stand at Arafah on what your local calendar calls the eighth.
There are two serious answers to that, held by serious people, and neither is a mistake. What follows lays them out, gives the 2027 dates, and then adds something the usual discussion leaves out: once you convert the pilgrims' hours into your own time zone, the idea of fasting "alongside" them turns out to mean very different things in London, Toronto, Jakarta and Sydney.
What the fast is, and why the day matters
The virtue comes from a hadith narrated by Abu Qatadah in Sahih Muslim (1162): asked about fasting the Day of Arafah, the Prophet ﷺ said he hoped from Allah that it expiates the sins of the year before and the year after. That is the whole reason people care which day it is — a reward tied to a named day raises the stakes of getting the day wrong.
The fast is recommended for those who are not on Hajj. For the pilgrims themselves, the Sunnah is not to fast at Arafah: the Prophet ﷺ was seen drinking there, as reported in both Bukhari and Muslim, and the day is spent in supplication rather than hunger. So the people whose day it is are not fasting; the fast belongs to everyone else.
The classical books never had to separate "the ninth" from "the day of the standing", because for most of history news could not travel from Makkah fast enough to make the question practical. It is a modern question built on an old disagreement.
The two positions
The old disagreement is over moon sighting across distance. The Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools, in their better-known positions, hold that a sighting established in one place obliges others; the Shafi'i school holds that regions with different horizons (matali') may begin the month on different days. The basis often cited for the second view is the report of Kurayb in Sahih Muslim (1087), in which Ibn Abbas in Madinah kept to Madinah's own sighting rather than Syria's. The same debate is why Ramadan starts on different days.
Applied to Arafah, it produces two answers.
- Fast on the day the pilgrims stand. The name of the fast is the Day of Arafah, and Arafah is an event at a place: the pilgrims' standing on the plain. On this view, when that happens is a fact announced from Makkah, and you fast that day wherever you are, even if your own calendar says the eighth. A number of contemporary scholars and several community councils in the West take this view, especially where the local calendar is itself uncertain or already follows Saudi announcements.
- Fast on the ninth of your own calendar. The fast is tied to a date — the ninth of Dhul Hijjah — and a date is set by the moon of the place you live, just as your Ramadan and your Eid are. On this view the name "Arafah" identifies the ninth rather than overriding it. Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin is widely cited for answering that people in a country whose month began differently fast by their own country's ninth, and this is the practical position of many national religious authorities that set their own calendar.
The 2027 dates
Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar, which is calculated in advance, puts 1 Dhul Hijjah 1448 on Friday 7 May 2027. That makes the Day of Arafah Saturday 15 May and Eid al-Adha Sunday 16 May — the same date on our Eid al-Adha 2027 page.
Two caveats. The Hajj dates are set by a sighting announcement from the Saudi Supreme Court, which can differ by a day from the printed Umm al-Qura date, so the standing itself is only certain once the month is announced. And your own country's ninth may be 15 or 16 May depending on which method it uses. The Islamic calendar page shows the Umm al-Qura date for any day.
| Dhul Hijjah | Date (2027) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri 7 May | The ten days begin |
| 2–7 | Sat 8 – Thu 13 May | |
| 8 | Fri 14 May | Yawm al-Tarwiyah; pilgrims go to Mina |
| 9 | Sat 15 May | Day of Arafah |
| 10 | Sun 16 May | Eid al-Adha; fasting is prohibited |
How much of the standing falls inside your fast
The first view is often put as "fasting together with the pilgrims". It is worth seeing what that means on a clock. The main part of the standing runs from after the sun passes its zenith until sunset — in Makkah on 15 May 2027 that is Dhuhr at 12:18 to Maghrib at 18:52. We converted those six and a half hours into local time in ten cities and laid them against each city's own fast on the same date.
Across Europe and Africa the pilgrims' afternoon sits inside your day. In North America it sits in your morning: in Toronto and New York the standing ends before local noon, and you keep fasting for more than eight hours after the pilgrims have left Arafah. On the US West Coast it starts before you have even begun fasting. Further east it runs out of day: in Jakarta only the first hour and a half overlaps, and in Sydney the standing begins at 19:18 — after the fast has already been broken.
None of this decides the fiqh question. The virtue is attached to the day, not to a synchronised hour, and both views accept that. But it does take some of the force out of the idea that following Makkah makes your fast simultaneous with the pilgrims. For much of the world, on either view, you are fasting the same calendar day, not the same hours.
| City | Fajr | Maghrib | Fast | Standing (local) | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Makkah | 04:21 | 18:52 | 14h 31m | 12:18–18:52 | 6h 34m |
| Istanbul | 03:54 | 20:15 | 16h 21m | 12:18–18:52 | 6h 34m |
| London | 02:08 | 20:46 | 18h 38m | 10:18–16:52 | 6h 34m |
| Oslo* | 01:15 | 21:48 | 20h 33m | 11:18–17:52 | 6h 34m |
| Cape Town | 06:05 | 17:54 | 11h 49m | 11:18–17:52 | 6h 34m |
| Toronto | 03:50 | 20:36 | 16h 46m | 05:18–11:52 | 6h 34m |
| New York | 03:47 | 20:06 | 16h 19m | 05:18–11:52 | 6h 34m |
| Los Angeles | 04:15 | 19:48 | 15h 33m | 02:18–08:52 | 4h 37m |
| Jakarta | 04:41 | 17:44 | 13h 03m | 16:18–22:52 | 1h 26m |
| Sydney | 05:13 | 17:03 | 11h 50m | 19:18–01:52 | none |
A 20-hour Arafah and an 11-hour one
Because the day falls in mid-May, it is a long fast in the north and a short one in the south. The same Day of Arafah is 11 hours 49 minutes in Cape Town and 20 hours 33 minutes in Oslo on its default rule — a gap of almost nine hours for the same act of worship.
That is worth knowing before you plan it. A voluntary fast can be broken for genuine need without sin, and an 18-hour fast in London on a working Saturday is a real undertaking. Your local times for the day are on the prayer times page.
Common questions
- When is the Day of Arafah in 2027?
- By the Umm al-Qura calendar, 9 Dhul Hijjah 1448 is Saturday 15 May 2027, with Eid al-Adha on Sunday 16 May. The Hajj dates are confirmed by the Saudi sighting announcement at the start of the month and can move by a day.
- My country's calendar is a day behind Saudi Arabia. Which day should I fast?
- Scholars differ. One view fasts on the day the pilgrims stand at Arafah; the other fasts on the ninth of your own country's calendar, as Shaykh Ibn Uthaymin and many national authorities hold. Both are legitimate. Follow your local scholar, or fast both days, since fasting the eighth is also permissible.
- Does fasting on the Saudi day mean I am fasting at the same time as the pilgrims?
- Often not. On 15 May 2027 the standing from Dhuhr to Maghrib in Makkah falls entirely inside the fast in Europe and on the US East Coast, but only 1h 26m of it overlaps in Jakarta, and none of it in Sydney, where it begins after local Maghrib.
- Can I fast on the 10th if my country's Eid is a day later?
- Fasting on the day of Eid is prohibited, but the prohibition follows your own Eid. If your community's Eid is on 17 May, 16 May is your ninth, and on the local-calendar view it is your Day of Arafah.