Al-Baqarah, 2:185
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَٰتٍ مِّنَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَلْفُرْقَانِ فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ ٱلشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ وَمَن كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِّنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ بِكُمُ ٱلْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ ٱلْعُسْرَ وَلِتُكْمِلُوا ٱلْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَىٰكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
( “The month of Ramadan [is that] in which Qur'an was sent down, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey - then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that [to] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.” )
There is only one ayah(verse) of Ramadan that explicitly mentions the month of Ramadan and that belongs to Surah Baqarah. It is long Ayah and has many phrases in it. Each phrase has some lessons to teach us. In this series in sha Allah we will try to ponder upon the same. This blog article will cover only first phrase of this ayah which is,
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ
“The month of Ramadan is the one in which Quran was revealed,”
So let's ponder upon this phrase.
From the language point of view, Arab says that best way to say something is to use least amount of words. But this phrase is more wordy as Allah could have said it with much lesser words. But Allah elaborated it. What difference does this make? First thing is purpose of this Ayah is the first wording of ayah and that is ‘The month of Ramadan’, i.e Subject matter of this is ‘The month of Ramadan’. The second interesting thing is that Allah has referred to the time of revelation of Quran before also at other places in Quran. Like Allah says in surah Qadr that “Indeed, We sent the Qur'an down during the Night of Decree.” But he never specified the month. But here in this Ayah Allah informed us about the month in which Quran was revealed.
The word “feehi” here indicates especially and particularly in this month highlighting the role and importance of this month. Word ‘Ramadan’ comes from 'Ramad” Which means extreme heat. So Ramadan is actually 'mubalaga’ of month of extreme heat. When there are extreme heat, people are desperate and they are hoping for rain to come relief to come. So imaginary here is this is the month of ‘Extreme heat’, extreme discomfort and Allah sent down relief for humanity and that relief is Quran.
Most important thing that we should know about this month is that Quran came down in this month. This is the month when Allah SWT decide to speak to humanity one last time directly. This is one message which is relevant to every single human being directly from Allah until the last human being that walks on this earth. This is the month to connect with the Quran. This is the month to have real relationship with Quran. This is the month to hear what our creator Allah is saying to us.
When we read Quran, we should feel privileged by thinking I am reciting something that travelled across the seven heavens from Allah So I could read what he has to say, what he has to tell me. We should feel sense of appreciation. To give an analogy if we have some package at home unopened and it has international wrapping with stamps. Then we are like this came from far so this must be really important. Every time Ramadan comes we have to almost relive the coming down of Quran.
Another remarkable thing in this phrase of this ayah is Allah didn't say that he sent down the Quran. He said Quran was sent down. So he didn't mention himself by using passive sentence. Reason to this in language is to focus on an object and object becomes the subject. This is the way of highlighting the special awe we have to have of the Quran literally being sent down in this month. And that's captured in passive form here.
We should not reduce the Quran to just recitation or listening to recitation in this month. Both of these are extremely important but Quran didn’t come to be recited. Quran didn't come for sounds. Quran came to be understood. Quran came with the message. So this is the month to connect not just with the sounds of the Quran but more importantly with the message of the Quran.
Thank you for sharing this detailed Tafseer of the Ayah of Ramadan by Nouman Ali Khan. The insights provided are very enlightening and enhance our understanding of this important verse. I appreciate the effort to explain it so clearly. JazakAllah Khair!
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