Ghoulamllah: people who eat before Maghrib prayer call will fast in vain

Algerian religious affairs minister Bouabdellah Ghoulamallah Sunday warned against non respect of prayers time during the fasting month of Ramadan, saying “everyone who eats before the Maghrib prayer, his or her fasting is in vain.”

“Mosques have to respect prayers time fixed in the official calendar determined by the ministry for Ramadan,” Ghoulamallah said in a meeting with scientific council chairmen at Dar Imam in Mohammadia in Algiers.

This comes as Salafist tendency partisans believe that Iftar and Imsak times can be fixed by using the human eye without relying on the ministry’s time table.

This problem is raised during every Ramadan. People get confused between following prayer calls or respecting Ramadan calendar.

The minister insisted on following the calendar, saying “everyone who eats before the Maghrib prayer, his or her fasting is in vain.”

Speaking about Tarawih prayer, he said all the mosques have to respect the same duration as people abandon neighborhood mosques to go to other mosques where prayer duration is shorter.

“This year, Tarawih prayer must be similar in all the mosques in Algeria without taking neither a very long time nor a very short time.”

Speaking about Zakat al-Fitr, Ghoulamallah said money collection will start in mid-Ramadan and will be distributed on poor people living near mosques two nights before Eid al-Fitr.

He called on imams to launch an awareness-raising campaign in Ramadan to sensitize people about daily shopping and avoid money waste.