Ramazan Meaning

RAMAẒĀN (رمضان‎). The ninth month of the Muḥammadan year, which is observed as a strict fast from dawn to sunset of each day in the month. The word Ramaẓān is derived from ramẓ, “to burn.” The month is said to have been so called either because it used (before the change of the calendar) to occur in the hot season, or because the month’s fast is supposed to burn away the sins of men. (G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, in loco.)

The observance of this month is one of the five pillars of practice in the Muslim religion, and its excellence is much extolled by Muḥammad, who said that during Ramaẓān “the gates of Paradise are open, and the gates of hell are shut, and the devils are chained by the leg, and only those who observe it will be permitted to enter at the gate of heaven called Raiyān.” Those who keep the fast “will be pardoned all their past venial sins.” (Mishkāt, book vii. ch. i. pt. 1.)

The express injunctions regarding the observance of this month are given in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 179–184:—

“O believers! a Fast is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may fear God, for certain days. But he among you who shall be sick, or on a journey, shall fast that same number of other days: and as for those who are able to keep it and yet break it, the expiation of this shall be the maintenance of a poor man. And he who of his own accord performeth a good work, shall derive good from it: and good shall it be for you to fast—if ye knew it. As to the month Ramaẓān in which the Qurʾān was sent down to be man’s guidance, and an explanation of that guidance, and of that illumination, as soon as any one of you observeth the moon, let him set about the fast; but he who is sick, or upon a journey, shall fast a like number of other days. God wisheth you ease, but wisheth not your discomfort, and that you fulfil the number of days, and that you glorify God for his guidance, and that you be thankful. And when my servants ask thee concerning me, then will I be nigh unto them. I will answer the cry of him that crieth, when he crieth unto me: but let them hearken unto me, and believe in me, that they may proceed aright. You are allowed on the night of the fast to approach your wives: they are your garment and ye are their garment. God knoweth that ye defraud yourselves therein, so He turneth unto you and forgiveth you! Now, therefore, go in unto them with full desire for that which God hath ordained for you; and eat and drink until ye can discern a white thread from a black thread by the daybreak: then fast strictly till night, and go not in unto them, but rather pass the time in the Mosques. These are the bounds set up by God: therefore come not near them. Thus God maketh His signs clear to men that they may fear Him.”

From the preceding verses it will be seen that fast does not commence until some Muslim [534]is able to state that he has seen the new moon. If the sky be over-clouded and the moon cannot be seen, the fast begins upon the completion of thirty days from beginning of the previous month.

It must be kept by every Muslim, except the sick, the infirm, and pregnant women, or women who are nursing their children. Young children, who have not reached the age of puberty, are exempt, and also travellers on a journey of more than three days. In the case of a sick person or traveller, the month’s fast must be kept as soon as they are able to perform it. This act is called Qaẓāʾ, or expiation.

The fast is extremely rigorous and mortifying, and when the Ramaẓān happens to fall in the summer and the days are long, the prohibition even to drink a drop of water to slake the thirst is a very great hardship. Muḥammad speaks of this religious exercise as “easy” (Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 181), as most probably it was when compared with the ascetic spirit of the times. Sir William Muir (Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. 49) thinks Muḥammad did not foresee that, when he changed the Jewish intercalary year for the lunar year, the fast would become a grievous burden instead of an easy one; but Muḥammadan lexicographers say the fast was established when the month occurred in the hot season (see G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah).

During the month of Ramaẓān twenty additional rakʿahs, or forms of prayer, are repeated after the night-prayer. These are called Tarāwīḥ.

Devout Muslims seclude themselves for some time in the Mosque during this month, and abstain from all worldly conversation, engaging themselves in the reading of the Qurʾān. This seclusion is called Iʿtikāf. Muḥammad is said to have usually observed this custom in the last ten days of Ramaẓān. The Lailatu ʾl-Qadr, or the “night of power,” is said by Muḥammad to be either on the twenty-first, twenty-third, or twenty-fifth, or twenty-seventh, or twenty-ninth of the month of Ramaẓān. The exact date of this solemn night has not been discovered by any but the Prophet himself, and some of the Companions, although the learned doctors believe it to be on the twenty-seventh of this night. Muḥammad says in the Qurʾān (Sūratu ʾl-Qadr):—

By these verses the commentator Ḥusain understands that on this night the Qurʾān came down entire in one volume to the lowest heaven, from whence it was revealed by Gabriel in portions, as the occasion required. The excellences of this night are said to be innumerable, and it is believed that during it the whole animal and vegetable kingdom bow in humble adoration to the Almighty, and the waters of the sea become sweet in a moment of time! This night is frequently confounded with the Shab-i-Barāt, but even the Qurʾān itself is not quite clear on the subject, for in Sūrah xliv. 1 it reads, “By this clear book. See on a blessed night have we sent it down, for we would warn mankind, on the night wherein all things are disposed in wisdom.” From which it appears that “the blessed night,” or the Lailatu ʾl-mubārakah, is both the night of record and the night upon which the Qurʾān came down from heaven, although the one is the twenty-seventh day of Ramaẓān and the other the fifteenth of Shaʿbān.

M. Geiger identifies the Ramaẓān with the fast of the tenth (Leviticus xxiii. 27); but it is probable that the fast of the Tenth is identical with the ʿĀshurāʾ, not only because the Hebrew Asūr, “ten,” is retained in the title of that Muḥammadan fast, but also because there is a Jewish tradition that creation began upon the Jewish fast of the Tenth, which coincides with the Muḥammadan day, ʿĀshurāʾ being regarded as the day of creation. Moreover, the Jewish Asūr and the Muslim ʿĀshurāʾ are both fasts and days of affliction. It is more probable that Muḥammad got his idea of a thirty days’ fast from the Christian Lent. The observance of Lent in the Eastern Church was exceedingly strict, both with regard to the nights as well as the days of that season of abstinence; but Muḥammad entirely relaxed the rules with regard to the night, and from sunset till the dawn of day the Muslim is permitted to indulge in any lawful pleasures, and to feast with his friends; consequently large evening dinner-parties are usual in the nights of the Ramaẓān amongst the better classes. This would be what Muḥammad meant when he said, “God would make the fast an ease and not a difficulty,” for, notwithstanding its rigour in the day-time, it must be an easier observance than the strict fast observed during Lent by the Eastern Christians of Muḥammad’s day.

The following sayings of Muḥammad regarding the fast of Ramaẓān are found in the Traditions (see Mishkāt, Arabic Ed., Kitābu ʾṣ-Ṣaum).

“The difference between our fast and that of the people of the book (i.e. Jews and Christians) is eating only before the first dawn of day (and not afterwards).”

“Keep not the fast till you see the new moon, and if the moon be hidden from you by clouds, count the days.” And in one tradition it is thus:—“A month is twenty-nine nights, then keep not the fast till you see the new moon, which, if she be hid from you by clouds, then complete thirty days.”

“When the darkness of the night advances from the west and the day departs from the east, and the sun sets, then the keeper of the fast may begin to eat.”

“There are eight doors in Paradise, and [535]one is called Raiyān, by which only the keepers of the fast shall enter.”

“When the month Ramaẓān arrives the doors of Heaven are opened” (in another tradition it is said, the doors of Paradise are opened), “and the doors of hell are shut, and the devils are chained” (in one tradition it is said, the doors of God’s mercy are opened).

“The person who fasts in the month of Ramaẓān on account of belief in God and in obedience to His command, shall be pardoned of all his past sins, and the person who says the night prayers of the Ramaẓān shall be pardoned all his past sins, and the person who says the prayers on the Lailatu ʾl-Qadr with faith and the hope of reward shall be pardoned of all his past sins.”

“If a keeper of fast does not abandon lying, God cares not about his leaving off eating and drinking.”

“There are many keepers of fast who gain nothing by fasting but thirst, and there are many risers up at night and performers of prayers who gain nothing by their rising but wakefulness.”