Allah Rabbul ‘Alameen reveals in the Holy Quran : “Ramadhan is the (month)/in which was sent down/The Qur-an, as a guide/To mankind, also clear (Signs)/For guidance and judgement/ (Between right and wrong)./ So everyone of you/Who is present (at his home)/During that month/Should spend it
in fasting…” (Sura Baqara 2:185) (The Meanings of the holy Quran : Translation and Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali). The facilities and concessions given by Allah has been revealed in the same verse : “But if anyone is ill,/Or on a journey,/The preserved period/(Should be made up)/By days later.”
“(Fasting) for a fixed/ Number of days; /But if any of you is ill,/ Or on a journey,/ The prescribed number/ (should be made up)/ From days later. /For those who can do it/ (with hardship), is a ransom, /The feeding of one/ That is indigent. /But, he that will give More, of his own free will, -/ It is better for him. /And it is better for you/ That ye fast,/ If ye only knew.” (Sura Baqara 2 : 184)
Allama Yusuf Ali in the ‘Holy Quran : Translation and Commentary’ comments on ‘illness’ and ‘journey’: “Illness and journey must not be interpreted in an elastic sense : They must be such as to cause real pain or suffering if the fast were observed. For journeys, a minimum standard of three marches is prescribed by some Commentators; others make it more precise by naming a distance of 16 farsakhs, equivalent to 48 miles. A journey of 8 or 9 miles on foot is more tiring than a similar one by bullock cart. There are various degrees of fatigue in riding a given distance on horseback or by camel or in a comfortable train or by motor car or by steamer, aeroplane or airship. In my opinion, the standard must depend on the means of locomotion and on the relative resources of the traveller. It is better to determine it in each case according to circumstances.”
He comments on ‘those who can do it with hardship’:
“Such as aged people, or persons specially circumstanced. The Shafi’is would include a woman expecting a child, or one who is nursing a baby : but on this point, opinion is not unanimous, some holding that they ought to put in the fasts later, when they can.”
The minors, for pre-puberty years ; the insane. for the period of insanity ; unconscious, for the period of unconsciousness ; and non-Muslims, before conversion to Islam have been exempted from fasting and also released from expiation for defaults.
