Among the most misunderstood verses in Qur'an, their "kings" are certainly those related to sawm or siyam.
In Qur'an, there are six occasions of "siyam".
If we except the first occasion, all the other occasions of siyam are commands to do penance for various wrongdoings, more or less serious:
* in verse 2.196, siyam is ordered for those who cannot properly do the hajj.
* in verse 4.92, siyam is ordered for someone who unvoluntarily kills a believer
* in verse 5.89, siyam is ordered for breaking one's oaths
* in verse 5.92, siyam is ordered for killing animals around the Ka'aba during hajj
* in verse 58.4, siyam is ordered for those who assimilated their wives to their mothers, then coming back on their declarations.
In view of these, there is therefore no reason that siyam ordered in verse 2.183 and followings should be considered a festive ritual, as they are considered in Islam.
It must have to do with penance as well.
Significance of siyam in verse 2.183 and followings has been lost, simply put.
And among the "king" misunderstood verses of Qur'an, verse 2.187 is the king of kings.
Here are the misconceptions to be cleared in verse 2.187:
* rafath (رَفَث) does not mean sexual relationship but lewed or obscene speech
* uḥilla (أُحِلَّ) here does not mean it has been made lawful or halal from legal point of view.
It means you were permitted to this or that, in the sense of you allowed yourself to do this or that.
In Qur'an the verb aḥalla (أَحَلَّ) does not necessarily mean that the act to allow something is correct.
For example, in verse 9.37, the rejectors "yuḥillūna" (allow it) an-nasa while they shouldn't.
* takhtānūna anfusakum does not mean to have clandestine sexual relationships but deceive yourselves. This is in relation with the word uhilla above: you allowed yourselves to talk obscene speech to your women (like harassment in a modern world) but you were deceiving yourselves.
* the verb bāshiru (بَٰشِرُ) has nothing to do with having sexual relationship.
It is related to the word bushra which means glad tidings.
I suspect that the meaning related to sexual relationship is because this verse was totally misunderstood by early grammarians.
It should be noted that if having sex with women (and here only with wives of course, not any woman) was forbidden by God during fasting before this verse was revealed, then there is no way God would suddenly allow it just because people were not able to stick to that rule.
And if it was not forbidden, then there is no way God would have to forgive anyone for doing something not forbidden.
So the traditional understanding of verse 2.187 to allow sex during the nights of Ramadan is theologically meaningless.
The bushra is an extremely important concept, it is the cornerstone of all the Scriptures from the Torah, to Gospels, to Qur'an.
So bāshirūhunna means "bring them (the women) glad tidings", understood: instead of rafath, i.e. instead of obscene speech.
In fact, bashiru and bushra have much stronger sense than just good speech.
Their actual meaning is more like bring good news of the good promises.
In the context of verse 2.187, it means bring women good promises to alleviate their conditions. I'll come back to this later.
We come to most complicated part of verse 2.187, because it switches to metaphorical meaning without notice.
* Eat and drink: first of all, it's a positive command.
Nowhere in this verse it is said "don't eat or don't drink".
Of course, it is still possible to take them in the proper sense.
But w.r.t. what was previously explained about obscene speech vs. bring good news and good promises, their true meaning in this context is really metaphorical.
It simply means: study and learn!
More in the context, it means please study and learn first before moving forward.
It is important to notice that this command "eat and drink until..." is still related to bringing glad tidings to women because after that, the verse continues with "do not bring them glad tidings while you are secluded in the mosques".
So it is not a general command describing the ritual of fasting of Ramadan as in Islam but a specific command related to the women conditions.
* Then the ultimate complicated part: "until becomes distinct to you the white thread from the black thread from the dawn".
This expression actually comes from Judaism and the Talmud where it is ordered to the faithful to perform the morning prayer when he can distinguish a blue thread from a white thread on his tallit (shawl).
It should be noted that Jews since centuries now are not able to fulfill this command because this is a particular blue dye whose recipe has been lost since the Middle Age.
The command in the Talmud can indeed be taken in the proper sense, however it is recognized by the Jewish tradition that it has also figurative meanings, either related to knowledge of the divine commandments, or related to the coming of the messianic era.
This is a analogue figurative meaning at work in the verse.
Before elaborating on this, we need the following:
* then fulfill the siyam until the night:
The scheme for redemption is the following: first bring glad tidings that the promise of redemption will be accomplished, then hold an atonement period, then redemption takes place.
For example, Zacharia receives the glad tidings of a son, but then is condemned to silence until the birth of Yahiya.
Another example is Maryam: she receives the glad tidings of a son, but then decides the remain silent until she returns to her people, and btw, during a sawm, she eats and drinks but remains silent.
Therefore, eat and drink until becomes distinct to you the white thread from the black thread from the dawn, then fulfill the siyam until the night. This means study and learn until the divine commandments (the threads) bearers of the promise to alleviate the conditions of women become clear to you, then perform the atonement period until they actually enter into force.
* walā tubāshirūhunna wa antum ʿākifūna fī l-masājidi: do not bring women glad tidings while you are secluded in the mosques.
This is in fact more or less the explicit version in the proper sense of the previous metaphorical and figurative sentence.
We learn several things here: at that time, mosques were not only places of prayer.
They were in fact also places to teach religion and the divine will.
And it is really unlikely they were invented by the Muslim community at the same time Qur'an was elaborated so they certainly existed well before Qur'an.
Mosques were also places for retreat and to perform atonement.
Also, siyam in verse 2.187, and this is likely consistent with its other uses in Qur'an is about remaining silent and secluded until redemption happens.
It is not uncompatible with abstinence of physical food and drink during the day, but the focus is not on that.
The focus is on abstinence of speech during the day and seclusion whose goal is to amend and reform.
Now we have the complete understanding of verse 2.187:
You allowed yourselves to have lewed speech against your women during the nights of atonement while you have mutual rights and obligations (garments), you and them. God knows you were deceiving yourselves, so He turned to you and forgave you. Now, be bearers of glad tidings to them, seek what God has commanded to you. Study and learn until the divine commandements to reach redemption become clear for you, then fulfill the atonement period, and do not bring them (women) glad tidings during your seclusion in the mosques. Do not cross the lines set by God. God makes clear His teachings for the people so that they become righteous.
Then we can turn to verses 2.183 until 2.185.
Verse 2.183 clarifies what is the purpose of siyam: it is to make people reach righteousness.
So whatever ritual is followed by people, such as not eating nor drinking nor smoking nor having sexual relationship, during the day, etc, if it does not make them reach righteousness, this is not siyam as in Qur'an.
Righteousness according to Qur'an is somewhat defined in verse 2.177:
Piety is not to turn your faces towards the east and the west, but pious is one who believes in God and the Last Day, and the angels, and the Book, and the prophets, and he gives wealth out of love to the relatives, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and those who ask, and to free the slaves; and he establishes the prayer, and contributes towards purification; and those who keep their pledges when they make a pledge, and those who are patient in the face of adversity and hardship and when in despair. These are the ones who have been truthful, and these are the righteous (muttaqi).
As we can infer from verses 2.177 and 2.183 the ultimate goal of siyam in verse 2.183 is not to establish a religious ritual per se, but to amend and reform the society.
From what I can observe in Islam, the fasting of Ramadan as it is performed makes people more religious, yes, but as to whether they become more righteous, this is another matter.
On the other hand, verse 2.183 while establishing the practice of siyam does not explicitly say how to practice it.
And verse 2.187 is not the actual explanation of how to practice siyam in verse 2.183, as verse 2.187 is specifically related to promises to women.
Nevertheless, there is a link between verse 2.183 and verse 2.187 because verse 2.187 happens in the context of an already ongoing siyam.
Verse 2.184 explains that doing siyam voluntarily (here, to reach righteousness) is a good for oneself, and people not able doing it for various reasons should consider postponing it to another moment.
And for those people able to do it but not willing to do it, they should feed a poor in compensation.
Verse 2.184 also implies that siyam to reach righteousness was a collective action performed at the same moment by the community, otherwise, there would no point postponing it later if unable to do it, as people would be able to chose the preferred moment for them.
Therefore, siyam in the context of verses 2.183 and 2.184 is a collective action undertaken by the community at a dedicated moment, analog to what was done by previous believing communities, and to which people should voluntarily participate for their own good.
Verse 2.185 explains that during "shahr ramadhana" Qur'an was revealed as a guidance to the people, and was also revealed the Furqan.
Furqan is not Criterion.
I will not dig into it, but Furqan is not an Arabic word, it is the Syriac word puqdana, which, when written in Syriac script looks like the word Furqan in Arabic script.
And puqdana means commandments, not criteria.
That said, it could also be the Syriac word purqana meaning salvation for the same scripting reason.
Both commandments or salvation could actually make sense in the context of verse 2.185, though I believe that commandments is perhaps more likely.
Anyway, verse 2.185 conveys the idea that revelations of Qur'an and Furqan were the glad tidings that the promise of redemption was going to be fulfilled.
So by the same scheme as above, after glad tidings are brought, atonement by fasting of speech must take place as an occasion to reflect and understand.
However the meaning in verse 2.185 is not so straightforward because of this:
faman shahida minkumu al-shahra falyaṣum'hu
First, siyam is to be undertaken by anyone (man / minkum) as a consequence of having witnessed (shahida) al-shahra.
Witnessing a month is a completely meaningless sentence even in Arabic: you possibly see the first crescent of moon announcing the beginning of a month, but seeing a month does not make sense, even less witnessing it.
Also siyam is an individual action by anyone witnessing, it is not said that someone witnesses and then all the other follow.
And shahr means something manifest. Even the original signification of shahr for moon was because it was conspicuous.
Whereas the first crescent starting a new month is hardly visible, and this is the reason why the first of Ramadan is called in Islam "Night of Doubt" laylatu ash-shakk.
W.r.t. the general lexical fields employed in Qur'an for clarity and light, the night of doubt is totally antinomic to Qur'an.
Also falyaṣum'hu: literally it means let him fast the month. Again this is totally meaningless, you cannot fast a month more than you can witness it.
For those reasons, shahr cannot be taken here only in the sense of month.
This points to a double-entendre of the expression shahru ramaḍāna.
It certainly means month of Ramadan, but it also means something like manifestation of bloody or scorching situation.
This manifestation of bloody situation motivated the revelation of Qur'an and Furqan as a fulfillment of promise of salvation for the people.
So whoever witnesses this manifestation of bloody situation after having received Qur'an shall expiate it.
Again, how to expiate the bloody situation is not explicitly told in this verse.
But as verse 2.187 incidentally suggests, atonement was likely to be performed in mosques by fasting of the speech in first place.
Fasting of the speech already exists in Judaism on the Day of Atonement, i.e. Yom Kippur.
It is accompagnied by fasting of other natures like fasting of the food and drink.
In several places in those verses, Qur'an says that atonement is for a few days, three to ten days.
This is cognate to the Ten Days of Repentance in Judaism starting with the New Year (Rosh Hashanna) and culminating with Yom Kippur.
There is also an ancient Muslim tradition that the fast was initially on Ashura on the 10th day of Muharram.
Siyam in Qur'an at verses 2.183 to 2.187 therefore bears a lot of ressemblances with Yom Kippur and much less with fasting of Ramadan in Islam.
On the other hand, fasting of Ramadan in Islam bears more ressemblances with Christian customs.
