The One Quranic Aya that Mentions Ramadan

This well-known aya, translated below (Saheeh International), is the only aya where Ramadan is mentioned by name as the time when the Quran was sent, and therefore is very significant and worth analyzing. Surat Al-Qadr 97 is a shorter sura entirely about the night the Quran was sent, called laylat Al-Qadr 97 or the “night of decree,” which we thus know is in Ramadan. But the whole month is named in this single aya in Surat Al-Baqara, with its significance declared in two basic ways: as the month in which the historically important event of sending the Quran to humankind occurred, and as a month of fasting and repentance. 

Ramadan 1: The Meaning of Ramadan

One could say Ramadan commemorates the tanzeel or sending down of the Qur’an, which occurred on the “Night of Power” or Laylat-ul-Qadr, a night the Quran describes as “better than a thousand months.” One fasts from the first thread of light of dawn until what the Qur’an mentions as “layl” or night, but which is usually interpreted as the first darkness, or sunset, although some wait longer to be sure it is really night. The fast includes not only food and drink (including water), but also abstention from profanity, smoking, sexual relations, and any other “impiety” such as lying, stealing, or fighting. War is prohibited except in actual self-defense. It is a sacred month, one of four, and the most sacred of all.