Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 191
191 12 Fasting THE QURAN LAYS DOWN: “FASTING IS prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain to righteousness” (2:184). Fasting is prescribed during the lunar month of Ramadhan. The revelation of the Quran began in that month (2:186). A person who is observing the fast is required, throughout the month, to abstain from food and drink and from sexual intercourse between the first flush of dawn and sunset. The fast is obligatory upon every adult, with certain exemptions. A sick person, one who is travelling, a woman with child or giving suck to a child, an old person, one who finds the severity of the fast hard to bear on account of age or other infirmity, are exempt. When the reason for the exemption is only temporary, as for instance illness from which the sufferer recovers, the number of days of the fast which are missed should be made up at any time during the succeeding eleven months. Should the