Ramadan

Before Ramadan became the in thing and obligatory, Ashura was the important fast of Allah's boss. See: Ashura

S 2:185 The month of Ramadan wherein the Quran was sent down, a guidance for people and proofs of the guidance and the Furqan. So he among you who has witnessed the month, let him fast on it, and he who was ill or on a journey, then an ‘iddah of other days. Allah wants ease for you and does not want hardship for you, and that you complete the ‘iddah and magnify Allah for what he has guided you; and perhaps you will thank.

The verse speaks of the month in which 'the' quran was sent down. Therefore this verse cannot be a part thereof. This quran would apparently be guidance and proofs of the guidance (?) and of the Furqan. Would it be proofs of itself? What exactly is the Furqan of which it is proofs?

How Much of the Quran is the Quran?

The Furqan

S 2:187 Obscenity towards your women has been made lawful for you on the night of fasting. They are a garment for you and you are a garment for them. Allah knew that you used to deceive yourselves so he repented for you and pardoned you. So now have relations with them and seek what Allah has written for you. And eat and drink until the white thread is distinguished for you from the black thread of dawn. Then complete the fast to the night. And do not have relations with them when you are secluded in the mosques. Those are Allah’s hudud, so do not approach them. Thus Allah clarifies his verses for people; perhaps they will fear.

Clarified and Detailed Verses

From an Answering Islam article:

Here is another instance of Allah permitting indecency, lewdness:

Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to (alrrafathu) your wives; -- they are a vestment for you, and you are a vestment for them. God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, and has turned to you and pardoned you. So now lie with them, and seek what God has prescribed for you. And eat and drink, until the white thread shows clearly to you from the black thread at the dawn; then complete the Fast unto the night, and do not lie with them while you cleave to the mosques. Those are God's bounds; keep well within them. So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing. S. 2:187

The word alrrafathu, which comes from rafath, refers to obscene, immoral behaviour and conduct. The word is used in this manner in the following citation:

The pilgrimage is (in) the well-known months, and whoever is minded to perform the pilgrimage therein (let him remember that) there is (to be) no lewdness (rafatha) nor abuse nor angry conversation on the pilgrimage. And whatsoever good ye do Allah knoweth it. So make provision for yourselves (Hereafter); for the best provision is to ward off evil. Therefore keep your duty unto Me, O men of understanding. S. 2:197 Pickthall... Let there be no obscenity, nor wickedness, nor wrangling in the Hajj ... Y. Ali... abstain from lewd speech, from all wicked conduct, and from quarrelling ... Asad

Renowned Sunni expositor Ibn Kathir commented on the meaning of Rafath in Sura 2:197:

Prohibition of Rafath (Sexual Intercourse) during HajjAllah said: ...<He should not have Rafath>This Ayah means that those who assume the Ihram for Hajj or `Umrah are required to avoid the Rafath, meaning, sexual intercourse. Allah's statement here is similar to His statement:<It is made lawful for you to have Rafath (sexual relations) with your wives on the night of the fast.> (2:187)Whatever might lead to sexual intercourse, such as embracing, kissing and talking to women about similar subjects, is not allowed. Ibn Jarir reported that Nafi` narrated that `Abdullah bin `Umar said, "Rafath means sexual intercourse or mentioning this subject with the tongue, by either men or women." `Ata' bin Abu Rabah said that Rafath means sexual intercourse and foul speech. This is also the opinion of `Amr bin Dinar. `Ata' also said that they used to even prevent talking (or hinting) about this subject. Tawus said that Rafath includes one's saying, "When I end the Ihram I will have sex with you." This is also the same explanation offered by Abu Al-`Aliyah regarding Rafath. `Ali bin Abu Talhah said that Ibn `Abbas said, "Rafath means having sex with the wife, kissing, fondling and saying foul words to her, and similar acts." Ibn `Abbas and Ibn `Umar said that Rafath means to have sex with women. This is also the opinion of Sa`id bin Jubayr, `Ikrimah, Mujahid, Ibrahim An-Nakha`i, Abu Al-`Aliyah who narrated it from `Ata' and Makhul, `Ata Al-Khurasani, `Ata' bin Yasar, `Atiyah, Ibrahim, Ar-Rabi`, Az-Zuhri, As-Suddi, Malik bin Anas, Muqatil bin Hayyan, `Abdul-Karim bin Malik, Al-Hasan, Qatadah and Ad-Dahhak, and others. (Source; italic and underline emphasis ours)

The late Maulana Muhammad Ali wrote:

197b. Three things are prohibited in pilgrimage, rafath, fusuq and jidal. Rafath means foul, unseemly, immodest or obscene speech (LL). Fusuq, according to a saying of the Prophet, signifies abusing (Rz). Jidal signifies contending in an altercation or disputing or litigating (LL). The pilgrimage represents the final stage of spiritual progress, and hence the pilgrim is enjoined not to speak words which should be a source of annoyance to anybody. Perfect love of God requires perfect peace with man; hence no offence should be caused to any man. The doing of good to others is recommended instead in the words whatever good you do, Allah knows it. (Source: , )

Now intercourse itself is obviously not obscene or lewd when done within the confines of marriage between a husband and wife. God is the one who created us as sexual beings and sanctioned sexual intimacy in the first place. It is therefore obvious that the Quran is referring to and sanctioning obscene sexual acts, lewd sexual behavior, acts that are unnatural and abnormal. In this verse, the Quran does not use the common word for intercourse, nikkah (e.g. S. 2:230, 4:22, 33:53; cf. this article), but rafath. In other words, Allah is explicitly permitting Muslim men to commit obscene, lewd conduct with their wives!

As the following source says:

The Arabic word rafath is defined by Abu Ubaida and other reliable Arabic commentaries as "behaving in an obscene manner". But translators of the Quran into English have been biased. The original Arabic verse does not just use the expression, "go unto your wives," but succinctly and explicitly states: "go and behave in an obscene manner with your wives." (The True Guidance: Commentary on Quranic Verses [Light of Life, P.O. Box 13, A-9503 Villach, Austria], part 5, pp. 40-41) Qur'an Contradiction: Does Allah Command Evil and Abomination or Doesn’t He?

How might the fast be observed in parts of the North Pole, where it can be six months day and six months night? From an article:

According to Islamic laws set out in the Qur'an and hadith, the keeping and breaking of a fast and the times of prayer, among other things, are related to times of sunrise and sunset. This is unproblematic from the flat Earth perspective found in those scriptures and accepted by 7th century Arabs. However, at higher latitudes on our spherical planet days can become very short in winter and very long in summertime. Above a certain latitude closer to the North or South Pole, the sun is no longer seen to rise or set for weeks or months each (six months at the actual North and South poles). Critics argue that such impracticalities and impossibly lengthy periods result from the very limited geographical knowledge available to the author of the Quran.

Concessions and fatwas

Islamic scholars have thus issued fatwas instructing Muslims at higher latitudes to follow the schedule of their original country or the schedule of the closest country with a distinguishable day and night. However, many Islamic scholars have declared that Muslims must fast for periods of up to and even beyond 20 hours.[1]

Extreme fasting windows

See the following list. Fasting begins at Dawn and ends at Sunset.

COUNTRY	DATE	DAWN	SUNSET	LENGTH OF FAST
Oslo, Norway	Jun 28, 2014	2:27 AM	10:43 PM	20h 16m
Juneau, Alaska	Jun 28, 2014	2:25 AM	10:07 PM	19h 42m
Reykjavik, Iceland	Jun 30, 2014	1:34 AM	12:02 AM	22h 28m

A Muslim fasting in Iceland, according to some scholars, would have to fast for nearly the entire day.

Differences across regions

There are also vastly different fasting windows depending on which country you are in. For example, in 2023, as this Al-Jazeera article explains 'Muslims living in the world’s southernmost countries, such as Chile or New Zealand, will fast for an average of 12 hours while those living in northernmost countries, such as Iceland or Greenland, will have 17-plus hours fasts'.[2] That article assumes those above 18 hours will follow a fatwa to fast according to timings in Mecca, or the nearest Muslim country. Ramadan in 2023 began just after the spring equinox. At the two equinoxes the least extreme range of fasting periods occur. When Ramadan coincides with the summer or winter solstice, the most extreme range is found, as illustrated in the table of examples from June 2014 provided above.

Ramadan is a fast of both food and water, as well as sexual intercourse:

Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to your wives; -- they are a vestment for you, and you are a vestment for them. God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, and has turned to you and pardoned you. So now lie with them, and seek what God has prescribed for you. And eat and drink, until the white thread shows clearly to you from the black thread at the dawn; then complete the Fast unto the night, and do not lie with them while you cleave to the mosques. Those are God's bounds; keep well within them. So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing. Quran 2:187

This arguably makes it one of the most physically and mentally challenging aspects of the religion to follow. Due to the Polar effect of our spherical Earth, making sunrise and sunset appear at different times across the planet, the difficulty of following the religious rules are therefore dependent on where one is born/lives rather than a similar universal challenge applied equally to all Muslims.

These issues also affect prayer times that are supposed to be carried out at sunrise and sunset the same way, which can heavily disrupt sleep for those living high in the northern hemisphere.

Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of night, and (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Qur'an at dawn is ever witnessed. Quran 17:78

Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night. Lo! good deeds annul ill-deeds. This is reminder for the mindful. Quran 11:114

Criticisms

The North Pole.

Some have asked, if one is to follow the timings of their home city, what is to be the practice of a permanent Muslim resident or even community in near-polar regions. Additionally, when it comes to regions where the day extends to be weeks or even months, the time-window of fasting for the "closest country" where the fasting window is under a day, the time frame usually still ends up being near 24-hours.

As mentioned in the opening paragraphs many sheikhs have understood the extreme difficulty of undertaking this fast, and so various conflicting fatwas have been issued on the subject,[3] with some simply stating to follow to Qur'an, making it near impossible and unfair for those living there compared to other countries with much shorter fasting periods. While others recognising the problem, have created man-made laws that directly contradict the Qur'an's instruction on this matter - usually to fast along with the nearest Muslim country or Meccan times, regardless of the actual sunrise and sunset of the local area.

This (polar) effect also means a serious 'unfairness' across the globe during Ramadan, with vastly different time windows to carry out fasting, making its difficulty and relevant ease dependent on the 'luck' of where one happens to be living.

Classical and conciliatory modern perspectives likewise appear unable to comfortably deal with the case of Astronauts, and eventually persons settling on extra-terrestrial bodies (moons, other planets, spacecraft, etc.). There is also the question of facing the Kaaba in Mecca, a city on earth, whilst not on earth. As there have been Muslim astronauts (e.g. Anousheh Ansari[4]) some scholars have created guidelines for these cases (one scholar wrote a handbook called Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah) at the International Space Station).

Considering Muhammad and his 7th century companions, living in the Arabian desert, likely did not know about the earth having poles and being spherical, the shortcomings of Islamic law in these regards are generally found to be unsurprising. The Ramadan Pole Paradox - WikiIslam

From another article:

6 MONTHS OF DAYLIGHT, 6 MONTHS OF DARKNESS

The Arctic is a region of complete contrast between continuous daylight in summer and the darkness of a seemingly interminable winter. The Arctic Circle is in fact the line that joins all the points where the Sun does not cross the horizon at the solstices: it does not set at all on 21June and does not rise at all on 21 December. The Sun’s unusual position is due to the fact that the Earth’s axis of rotation is inclined rather than perpendicular to the Sun. So “inside the Arctic Circle” is not an abstract notion: it is the geographic zone from where one can experience the fabled “midnight sun”. Once inside the Circle, as you move further north the number of 24-hour nights in winter and 24-hour days in summer gradually increases. At the North Pole itself, daylight and darkness each last exactly 6 months.An example here is Longyearben in Spitsbergen: the Polar night lasts 3 months (November, December and January) and the continuous daylight lasts 4 months (May-August). The period of continuous daylight is longer because the rays of sunlight curve downwards slightly as they pass through the very cold lower layers of the atmosphere, which means the Sun can still be “seen” even though it is actually below the horizon. THE CLIMATE AND THE NORTH POLE