The Beginning of the Fast - Qazwini

In the Quran, Allah SWT clearly states the duration of the fast:
“And eat and drink until the whiteness of the day becomes distinct from the blackness of the night at dawn, then complete the fast till night.” (Quran 2:187)

So now we have two discussions here:
1. When does the fasting start?
2. When does the fasting end?

Scholars of Tafsir say that before this verse was revealed, the ruling of fasting was that when a Muslim breaks his fast early at night before he’d sleep, he could not eat or drink anymore until Fajr. Muslims found this very difficult as it causes weakness. Then this verse was revealed, allowing Muslims to eat and drink until Fajr. Why did Allah change this ruling? So that we can appreciate the current ruling that we have. Imagine if we had to fast based on the old ruling!

How does the Quran describe fajr?
“And eat and drink until the whiteness of the day (white Khayt in Arabic) becomes distinct from the blackness of the night (black Khayt) at dawn.” ‘Khayt’ in the verse means thread. In Islam, there are two dawns (fajrs): fajr sadiq (the true dawn) and fajr kadheb (the fake dawn). The fake dawn is when there are vertical columns of light that appear in the horizon but disappear quickly. Around ten minutes after this, you can see a white thread that is horizontal in the horizon that slowly rises and pushes the black sky. This is an indication that the true fajr has set in.

There is no dispute that the true dawn is when you start fasting. Hence you can still eat and drink until fajr.
#Hawza #Seminary #Alhujjah #Qazwini #IslamicLaw #Fasting