Fasting the month or during the month: the meaning of "falyaṣum'hu"
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Peace be upon you.
I have been thinking of the time of fasting and remembered reading different posts and articles that fasting is 10 days and not the entire month of Ramadan.
I could not find that the root Ayn Dal Dal has a meaning of "few", but rather "counted" or "numbered". However, the way the word is used in other verses in the Qur'an (e.g. 1220) seems to carry the meaning of a small number.
The only thing preventing me from understanding that the fast could be 10 days is that in 2185 the word "falyaum'hu" seems to mean "fast IT".
I found a video where Edip Yuksel explains his understanding. The part that pertains to this specific question I have starts around 330 mins in to the video.
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgjiaQgTHl8
I was wondering why so many translations have rendered this as "fast therein", if it does indeed imply fasting the entire month.
Thoughts?
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There are some things I love in this forum, but there are also some things just utter nonsense.
Sometimes Quranists do a great job and make great findings by studying the Quran, and are making islam better and more meaningfull. Cleaning islam from all tradition and culture.
However sometimes Quranists are doing so much effort trying to derive interpretations from the Quran that are as much in opposition against the traditionalists as possible. The obligatory fasting period is one example.
All muslims all around the world are fasting for the whole month of ramadan. However, now some quranists are questioning whether this is correct, and are trying to convince others that it is actually 3 days, 7 days, 10 days, or what ever it may be.
To me, Allah has already commanded me
- that there is an obligatory fasting period
- that voluntary fasting is highly recommanded and an act of the rightous
- that we should not divide our religion in sects and subsects
To me, there are 1 billion muslims who are fasting a whole month. Fasting in a different period or for a different length than how these muslims are fasting is nothing other than dividing our religion in sects and subsects. No one knows for sure how long fasting is, except God himself; there is no maximum, but there is a minium. Lets assume the Quranists are correct, and that fasting is only 3 days. Do you think God will reward you more than all the other muslims, while you are fasting a tenth of what other 99.99% muslims are doing?
What Quranists are actually trying to do, is searching till death to find any reason to bash all other muslims.
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Peace mohf.
I have to respectfully disagree. I don't think the aim of "Quran'ists" is to oppose the majority just for oppositions sake, but I cannot speak for every individual. Personally, over the years I have noticed that so much of what I believed was not actually in the text of the Qur'an, but rather the interpretation of the translator, which more often than not was based on Hadith or some other reference that has no scriptural or historical basis.
The question I raise about the fasting period is trying to look at the meaning of the word in context of the verses related to the subject. I would like to study the Qur'an with as unbiased of an approach as possible. Yes, there are a lot of interpretations out there and many translations. Which interpretation is the correct one? I believe God will guide those who sincerely seek the truth without any hangups on what the 99% of muslims are doing or have been doing. God even says in the Qur'an that if we obey the majority of people we will be misled, so there is obviously some wisdom in this warning. This does not mean that we should assume that every single thing the muslims are doing is wrong, but rather that we should use our God given intelligence to investigate and study the Qur'an before jumping to the conclusion that the majority must be right and what we have grown up with must be the correct way.
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Salam Mohf
Me too, I also have to respectfully disagree. I do agree however that we muslims that do not see hadith as divine (or as you say, Quranites) have a tendency to disagree with traditions just because they are traditions.
Fasting, yes it is a practice followed by the entire islamic world...........but with fasting they are making up rules which we cannot find in the Quran OR in the hadith.
I live in a country that depending on when ramadhan is it is either never night or never day............This fact completely voids the reason of fasting.....either you are unconcious or you do not even notice Ramadhan is on.......The scholars make fatwa "follow the closest muslim country"......problem solved, yes. According to Allah OR prophet Muhammed, no.
Just an example that whatever the "masses" are following are not exactly right...
So we have to re-evaluate, start over and look at everything from the beginning. In the process there will be many ideas flying around the internet forums..
Peace be upon you.
I have been thinking of the time of fasting and remembered reading different posts and articles that fasting is 10 days and not the entire month of Ramadan.
I could not find that the root Ayn Dal Dal has a meaning of "few", but rather "counted" or "numbered". However, the way the word is used in other verses in the Qur'an (e.g. 1220) seems to carry the meaning of a small number.
The only thing preventing me from understanding that the fast could be 10 days is that in 2185 the word "falyaum'hu" seems to mean "fast IT".
I found a video where Edip Yuksel explains his understanding. The part that pertains to this specific question I have starts around 330 mins in to the video.
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgjiaQgTHl8
I was wondering why so many translations have rendered this as "fast therein", if it does indeed imply fasting the entire month.
Thoughts?
Salam
In my Quran it is translated as (and now I am translating to english)
2185 The one that witnesses the revival of the moon shall fast through the month.
Strange, I now saw that it is in singular.......the one that witnesses..... hmm.............what does that mean?
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Salam Emil.
It seems your translation, like many others, has a few extra words that are not in the 'Arabic text. The "revival of the moon" seems to be referring to a new moon, and this is what this translator has translated "shahr" as, but then he/she says to "fast through the month". It appears to quite inconsistent in the selection of equivalent words.
I think my initial question also has to be linked with the meaning of "shahr". Once the definition of "shahr" becomes obvious, then the phrase "falyasum'hu" will make more sense.
As of now, based on the definitions of the root word I found in Lane's Lexicon, it seems that the word "shahr" can either refer to "new moon" or "full moon". I would say based on the root definition being attached with "obvious, apparent, public" it seems that "full moon" fits that description a lot better than "new moon", as the "new moon" is anything but "apparent. On the other hand, as far as I can tell, and maybe I'm just extremely ignorant in this regard, even though all the literature I have read on the phases of the moon confirm that the "full moon" happens on one particular night, there are about three nights where I honestly cannot differentiate the moons and they all look full to me.
Discussing the issue with my wife last night has made me think more about this subject as she reminded me that there must be a simple explanation that is straightforward and easy to understand.