[2:185] The month of Rama?ān, wherein the QurÌān was revealed, a guidance for the people, and as clear proofs of the Guidance and the Criterion; So let those of you, who are present at the month, fast it and if any of you be sick, or if he be on a journey, then a number of other days.
Rama?ān burns (yurmi?u) the sins (dhunūb) of some people and burns the mortal traces (rusūm) of other people. What a difference between those whose sins are burnt by His mercy and those whose mortal traces are burnt by His reality!
The month of Rama?ān is the month of the opening of the [divine] speech (khi?āb), the month of the revelation of the Book (kitāb), the month of obtaining the reward (thawāb), the month of drawing near and affirmation (ījāb), the month of the lightening of burdens (takhfīf al-kulfa), the month of achieving intimacy (taḥqīq al-zulfa), the month of descending mercy (nuzūl al-raḥma), the month of granting blessing (wufūr al-niʿma), the month of salvation (najāt) and the month of intimate conversation (munājāt).
[2:185 cont'd] God desires ease for you, and desires not hardship for you:
'Because He desires ease for you, you should recognize that He desires only ease for you'. Among the signs that He wants ease for His servant is that He has brought about the search for ease. If He had not desired ease for him, He would not have placed a desire for it in him. The one who spoke for them said:
If You had not wanted me to obtain
that for which I hope and seek
from Your generosity,
You would not have taught me to seek.
He gave hope and confirmed the desire, and made that giving binding inasmuch as He said, 'and He desires not hardship for you'. This was to negate the possibilities of other ways of thinking, leaving the true sense clearly spelled out.
[2:185 cont'd] and that you fulfill the number
According to the language of scholars (lisān al-ʿilm), [it is] 'that you fulfill the number [of days] of the fast'. According to the language of allusion (lisān al-ishāra), [it is] 'that in the clarity of the present state (ṣafāÌ al-ḥāl) you become aware of the fulfillment of the end (wafāÌ al-ma'āl)'.
[2:185 cont'd] and magnify God for having guided you and that you might be thankful
'in the final breath and that you might leave the numbered [days] of your life in the security of your faith. [God's] granting of success (tawfīq) in completing the fast of your month is great but the realization (taḥqīq) that your life is sealed with felicity is greater'.