Suhoor and Iftar: The Sunnah Way
Suhoor and iftar are the two meals that bracket a day of fasting — suhoor before dawn, iftar at sunset — and both carry specific Sunnah guidance beyond simply being "the meal before" and "the meal after."
Suhoor is explicitly recommended, not optional extra: a hadith describes it as containing barakah (blessing), and another instructs eating something for suhoor even if it's just a sip of water, distinguishing the Muslim fast from other traditions of fasting that don't include a pre-dawn meal at all. The timing is meant to be close to the start of Fajr rather than eaten hours earlier and then going back to sleep — delaying suhoor toward the end of the night, right up until the point Fajr begins, is the described Sunnah practice, based on the example of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions.
Iftar, breaking the fast at sunset, carries the opposite instruction: hasten it. A hadith states that people will remain upon good as long as they hasten to break the fast rather than delaying it once the sun has set. The traditional method, drawn from the Prophet's ﷺ own practice, is breaking the fast with dates — an odd number if possible — or with water if dates aren't available, before moving on to the rest of the meal. This is also the moment for the dua recited on breaking the fast (see the dedicated dua-when-breaking-fast article), traditionally said right at the point of breaking rather than after the full meal.
Between these two meals sits a well-known practical challenge: eating too much at either end. A large, heavy suhoor close to bedtime the night before, or a large iftar eaten too quickly after a full day without food, both tend to work against rather than for the person fasting — the more moderate approach, in line with general Islamic guidance on food (a Quranic verse advises eating and drinking without excess), tends to make the following day's fast considerably more manageable than either extreme.