death comes to them both, and they cause harm in the matter of the bequest, thus making the Fire incumbent upon themselves.” Then Abu Hurayrah recited: “after any bequest he may have made or debt,” up to His words, “without causing harm.” (1)

Regarding His saying, “O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you”: that is, it has been made obligatory and required. Linguistically, ṣawm and ṣiyām mean abstention. One says, “The day fasted,” when it becomes still and the noonday heat stands high, because when the sun reaches the middle of the sky, it pauses and ceases its course for a brief while. From this is His saying: “So say, ‘Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast,’” (Maryam 19:26)—that is, silence, for it is abstention from speech. In the Sacred Law, fasting means abstaining from food, drink, and sexual intercourse, with the intention, during a specified time.

“As it was prescribed for those before you”: namely, the prophets and communities before you. Scholars differed concerning this comparison. (2) Sa‘id ibn Jubayr said: The fasting of those before us was from nightfall until the following night, as it was at the beginning of Islam.

A group of scholars said: What is meant is that the fast of Ramadan was obligatory for the Christians, just as it was prescribed for us. At times it would occur during intense heat or severe cold; it was burdensome for them during their travels and detrimental to their livelihoods. Therefore, the scholars and leaders among them agreed to set their fast in a season between winter and summer. They set it in spring and added ten days to it as atonement for what they had done, so that it became forty days. Then their king suffered from a sore in his mouth, and he vowed to Allah that, if he recovered from his ailment, he would add a week to their fast. He recovered, so he added a week to it. Then that king died, and another king succeeded him. He said, “Complete it as fifty days.”

Mujahid said: A plague afflicted them, so they said, “Add to your fasting,” and they added ten days before it and ten after it. Al-Sha‘bi said: “If I fasted the entire year, I would still break my fast on the day concerning which there is doubt—whether it is said to be part of Sha‘ban or said to be part of Ramadan.” This is because the Christians were obligated to fast the month of Ramadan, so they fasted one day before the thirty days and one day after them. Then each succeeding generation continued to follow the practice of the generation before it, until they reached fifty days. Thus is the meaning of His saying, Most High: