Overall meaning : Allah Almighty informs His believing servants that He has prescribed fasting for them in order to attain piety and righteousness, and states that He also prescribed it for nations before them.
As Allah Almighty intends ease for His believing servants, He enjoins them to fast only for a few days, and states that if any one of them is ill or on a journey and breaks the fast, he has to make up for the fast days he has missed afterwards. Then He presents those who are able to fast with a choice between fasting and breaking the fast. If any one of them breaks his fast, he must feed a poor person for every day missed although feeding more than one person is greater in virtue; however, fasting is far better than all that. If a person realises the real benefit he will reap from fasting, he will absolutely not neglect it at all. The Almighty then abrogates this choice on the part of those who are able, enjoining them to observe the fast, and allows only those cannot possibly fast to feed the poor for each day as expiation.
Allah then reveals one of the greatest virtues and merits of the month of Ramadan, namely the revelation of the Qur’an in it, noting that the Qur’an is a guide to all good as it comprises clear verses, explains means of seeking true guidance and distinguishes truth from falsehood. He further states that it is obligatory for those who are present and not travelling in this month to fast it. As for those who are ill or on a journey and break their fast, they ought to make up for the missed fasts to complete the prescribed number of fast days. This highlights the fact that Allah Almighty only desires ease for His servants and wants them to glorify Him and thank Him for the blessing of fasting He has prescribed and for showing graciousness to them by making fasting rulings easy and convenient.
Then He directs His Prophet, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to inform Allah’s servants, if they ask him about His closeness to them, that He is very near indeed and that He answers the prayer of those who beseech Him sincerely. He instructs him to urge them to obey Him and submit their will to Him, absolutely assured that He will surely reward obedience and answer the prayer of the suppliants, so that they may thereby be rightly guided.
Then He informs the faithful that He has granted them permission to engage in conjugal relations with their spouses on the night of the fast, stating that husband and wife as like each other’s ‘garment’ due to their close intimacy. He informs them that He was fully aware of the fact that they contemplated having conjugal relations with their wives at night and eating after sleep before dawn, and that some of them was even guilty of doing so. He has now, through His grace, allowed them to eat and drink and have intimate relations with their spouses on the night of the fast. He explains that He has pardoned what they have done before and has now accepted their repentance, and are thus now permitted to have relations with their spouses, after this was initially prohibited, seeking thereby the offspring that Allah has ordained for them. One of the things He has also prescribed for them, He states, is the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), which they must genuinely seek and not let their relations distract them from it. Allah permits them to eat and drink at all times during the night until the whiteness of the day becomes distinct from the blackness of the night at dawn, by which time they ought to abstain from eating, drinking and conjugal relations until sunset. He also forbids the faithful from engaging in intimate relations during the period of their devotional retreat in the mosques, observing that eating, drinking and conjugal relations from which they must abstain during the days of Ramadan and during the period of their devotional retreat in the mosques are strictly prohibited and thus they must strictly avoid. As He has fully explained the fating regulations, so He clarifies the rest of the other regulations in his Book and through the statements of His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to teach people how to obey His commands and avoid prohibited acts.
Allah Almighty likewise forbids them from taking one another’s property by unjust means or by using deception to obtain, through the ruler’s or judge’s decision, a portion of other people’s possessions unlawfully while they know this practice is utterly immoral and strictly forbidden.