Sahur is the pre-dawn meal before the fast begins. Many people treat it as mandatory, almost as if fasting would be impossible without it. But is that really true, or are we simply following the Sunnah without understanding the difference between recommended and required?
When I was younger, sahur was the part of Ramadan I disliked the most. It meant interrupting sleep just to eat before fasting.
I slept around midnight, so waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning felt exhausting. Yet I was told that without sahur I would never last the day.
The message was simple: If you do not eat before fasting, you will suffer.
As I grew older, that assumption started to break down.
Fasting, at its core, is not about hardship. It is about obedience and intention. Once that became clear, I began paying closer attention to my own habits.
Over the years I changed how I eat. I stopped snacking, partly by simply not keeping snacks easily available at home. When they are not around, you do not eat them.
Eventually I realized something else. I was perfectly fine eating just once a day.
More importantly, I noticed that the amount of carbohydrates I ate had a direct effect on hunger. The more carbs I consumed, the hungrier I became. When my meals shifted away from rice and noodles toward proteins like meat and fish, hunger became far less noticeable.
Another assumption also started to look questionable: the idea that a person must drink two litres of water a day to avoid dehydration.
I worked in the oil and gas industry for years. I never drank that much water, and I have always disliked carrying water bottles around. Yet my body functioned perfectly well.
Later I began fasting regularly outside Ramadan. Mondays and Thursdays, and sometimes alternate days for a couple of weeks at a time.
During those periods I often skipped sahur completely. I simply ate normally at iftar around Maghrib.
I have also fasted without any religious intention at all, simply as an eating pattern. The body adapts the same way. Hunger still settles down and the day passes normally. This made it clear to me that the physical ability to fast is not dependent on sahur.
What surprised me was how quickly the body adapts.
Hunger stopped registering the way it used to. I could walk through a food bazaar and feel no urge to buy anything. At iftar there were no cravings. A simple meal was enough. Sometimes even just water and dates felt sufficient.
I no longer felt the pull toward carbohydrates or sweet kueh.
Which raises an interesting question.
If the body can adapt to fasting without sahur, why do many people insist it is absolutely necessary?
Part of the confusion comes from misunderstanding the meaning of Sunnah. Sahur is a Sunnah. That means it is recommended and encouraged, not obligatory.
Yet many people treat it as if the fast becomes invalid or impossible without it.
Some even approach it almost transactionally, as if eating before dawn is required in order for the fast to “work.”
But that was never the point.
Sahur is a Sunnah and a blessing. The Prophet encouraged it and there is barakah in it. Recognizing it as a blessing, I eventually adjusted my routine rather than abandoning it.
But the adjustment came from learning to respect my body’s requirements.
I stopped eating by 8 pm and try to be in bed before 10:30 pm. That rarely works perfectly and I often end up sleeping closer to 11:30 pm.
On some mornings I wake only about half an hour before dawn.
When I do eat, it is usually simple leftovers. The key difference is that I avoid carbohydrates. Instead I focus on protein, often meat or a couple of half-boiled eggs.
I avoid sweetened drinks and even plain water at that time. Instead I take a simple tonic made of apple cider vinegar, honey, sea salt, and a dash of lemon.
There is a practical reason behind this.
When there are almost no carbohydrates before Subuh, the body appears to continue burning fat during the fast instead of quickly returning to glucose cycles. The tonic also seems to help the body retain water during the day.
For some people, sahur helps them manage the fast. For others, the body adapts in different ways.
Fasting was never meant to revolve around maximizing food intake before sunrise. It is about restraint, discipline, and intention.
Sahur may be recommended.
But it is not what makes the fast possible.