Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 185 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:185

شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَـٰتٍ مِّنَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَٱلْفُرْقَانِ ۚ فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ ٱلشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ ۖ وَمَن كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِّنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ ۗ يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ بِكُمُ ٱلْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ ٱلْعُسْرَ وَلِتُكْمِلُوا۟ ٱلْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَىٰكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

“The month of Ramaḍān [is that] in which was revealed the Qur’ān, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the crescent of] the month,[66] let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey - then an equal number of other days. Allāh intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allāh for that [to] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ramadan is the month of the Quran; fast it, because Allah wants ease for you, a completed count, and hearts that magnify and thank Him.

A reflection

The One who wants ease for you

A nineteen-year-old decides this Ramadan will be different. He will sleep three hours a night, finish the Quran every week and cut off every friend. By the ninth day he is exhausted and irritable. On the tenth he gives up, not only on the plan but on the month.

In the middle of the fasting ayat, Allah tells us what He wants. 'Allah wants ease for you, and does not want hardship for you.' The One who owns the heavens could ask for anything. He chooses to describe His own will as ease.

On what that ease means here, the commentaries speak with one voice. Narration-based, concise and later works alike read it first as the permission just given. The sick and the traveller may break the fast and make up the days later. A later commentator says this permission comes from the height of His tenderness and the breadth of His mercy. The ease is not a loophole found around the command. It is written into the command itself.

The Arabic roots carry pictures. Yusr is a mare with light legs that steps easily, or a flock giving birth with none lost. ʿUsr is a camel ridden before it was broken in, fighting every step.

That is a quiet rebuke to a certain kind of ego. Some of us want a harder religion than Allah gave, because hardship makes us feel impressive. The Prophet ﷺ warned: 'The religion is ease, and no one makes the religion hard for himself but it overpowers him'. Al-Bukhari and al-Nasāʾī both record it. His wife reported that whenever he was given a choice between two things, he took the easier, unless it was a sin. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim both record that too. The ayah, the commentaries and the Prophet's own practice all point the same way.

Does Allah need our hunger? No. He is free of all need (35:15). The fast is for us, and its shape was set by the One who knows what we can carry. The nineteen-year-old did not need a tougher plan. He needed to fast the way he was asked.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.