Ala-Maududi
(2:187) It has been made lawful for you to go in to your wives during the night of the fast. Theyare your garment, and you are theirs.[190] Allah knows that you used to betrayyourselves and He mercifully relented and pardoned you. So you may now associate intimately withyour wives and benefit from the enjoyment Allah has made lawful for you,[191] and eatand drink[192] at night until you can discern the white streak of dawn against theblackness of the night;[193] then (give up all that and) complete your fasting untilnight sets in.[194]
But do not associate intimately with your wives during the period when you are on retreat in themosques.[195] These are the bounds set by Allah; do not, then, even draw nearthem.[196] Thus does Allah make His Signs clear to mankind that they may stay awayfrom evil.
190. Just as nothing intervenes between a person’s body and his clothes, so nothing can intervenebetween a man and his wife; it is a relationship of inalienable intimacy.
191. Although there was no categorical ordinance in the early days prohibiting sexual intercoursebetween husband and wife during the nights of Ramadan, people generally assumed that this wasnot permissible. Despite the feeling that their action was either not permitted or was at leastdisapproved of, they did at times approach their wives. Such a betrayal of conscience canencourage a sinful disposition. God, therefore, first reproaches them with their lack ofintegrity, for this is what was objectionable. As for the act itself, God makes it clear that itis quite permissible. Henceforth they might engage in sexual intercourse as a perfectly lawfulact unencumbered by feelings of guilt.
192. In this connection, too, there was a misapprehension at first. Some thought that eating anddrinking were absolutely prohibited after the performance of the ‘Isha’ (Night) Prayer. Othersthought that one could eat and drink so long as one had not fallen asleep, but that if one hadit was not permissible to eat on reawakening. These were people’s own fancies and often causedgreat inconvenience. This verse seeks to remove all such misconceptions. It clearly lays downthe duration of the fast: from dawn until sunset. Between sunset and dawn it is permissible toeat, to drink, and to indulge in the legitimate gratification of sexual desires.
At the same time the Prophet introduced the pre-fasting repast, recommending a good meal justbefore dawn.
193. In fixing the time of obligatory rites, Islam has been mindful that these timings should beso clear and simple that people, at all stages of development, should be able to follow them.This is why Islam bases its timing on conspicuous natural phenomena and not on the clock.
Some people object that this principle of timing is untenable in areas close to the poles, wherenight and day each last for about six months. This objection is based on a very superficialknowledge of geography. In point of fact neither day nor night lasts for six months in thoseareas – not in the sense in which people living near the Equator conceive of night and day. Thesigns of morning and evening appear at the poles with unfailing regularity and it is on thisbasis that people time their sleeping and waking, their professional work, their play andrecreation. Even in the days before watches were common, the people of countries like Finland,Norway and Greenland used to fix the hours of the day and night by means of various signs thatappeared on the horizon. Just as those signs helped them to determine their schedules in othermatters, so they should enable them to time their various Prayers, the pre-fast meal and thebreaking of the fast.
194. ‘Complete your fasting until night sets in’ means that the time of fasting ends withnightfall, i.e. sunset marks the breaking of the fast. The precise time of the end of thepre-dawn repast is when a lean strip of aurora appears at the eastern end of the horizon andbegins to grow. The time to break one’s fast starts when the darkness of night seems to havebegun to appear over the eastern horizon.
In our own time, some people have adopted an attitude of extreme caution with regard to the timeof both the end and start of fasting. The Law has not fixed these schedules with rigidprecision. If a person wakes up just at the crack of dawn it is proper for him to eat and drinkhastily. According to a Tradition the Prophet said: ‘If anyone of you hears the call for [themorning] Prayer while he is eating he should not stop immediately, but should finish eating tothe extent of his bare need.’ (Abu Da’ud. Siyam’, 14 – Ed.) Similarly, one need not wait for thelight of day to disappear fully before breaking the fast. The Prophet, for instance, used to askBilil to bring him something to drink as soon as the sun had set. Bilal expressed hisastonishment, pointing out that the light of day could still be observed. To this the Prophetreplied that the time of fasting came to an end when the darkness of night began to rise fromthe east. (Muslim, ‘Siyam’, 10; Abu Da’ud, ‘Siyam’, 15; etc. – Ed.)
195. ‘On retreat in the mosque’ refers to the religious practice of spending the last ten days ofRamadan in the mosque, consecrating this time to the remembrance of God. In this state, known asi’tikaf, one may go out of the mosque only for the absolutely necessary requirements of life,but one must stay away from gratifying one’s sexual desire.
196. The directive here is neither to exceed nor draw near the limits set by God. This means thatit is dangerous for a man to skirt the boundaries of disobedience; prudence demands that oneshould keep some distance from these lest one’s steps inadvertent lead one to cross them. Thesame principle has been enunciated in a Tradition in which the Prophet said: ‘Even sovereign hasan enclosed pasture and the enclosed pasture of God consists of His prohibitions. So, whosoeverkeeps grazing around that pasture is likely to fall into it.’ (Bukhari, ‘lman’, 36; ‘Buyu”, 3;Muslim, ‘Musaqah’, 107; Abu Da’d, ‘Buyu”, 3; Tirmidhi, ‘Buyu”, 1; Nasa’i, ‘Buyu?, 3; ‘Ashribah’,50; Ibn Majah, ‘Fitan’, 14 – Ed.)
It is a pity that many people. who are not conversant with the spirit of the Shari’ah (Islamiclaw), insist on using these boundaries to the limits. Many religious scholars exert themselvesin finding out arguments to justify this attitude, and a point is thus reached where only ahair’s breadth separates obedience from disobedience. Consequently many people fall prey todisobedience, even to downright error and wrong-doing. For once a man arrives at this point heis seldom capable of discerning between right and wrong, and maintaining the absoluteself-control needed to keep within the lawful limits.