Ramadan .. Why was the ninth month in the Hijri calendar called by this name?

Muslims fast the ninth month of “Ramadan” in the Hijri calendar, and distinguish it from other months of the Hijri year by worship, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. Month.

But what is the origin of the name of the holy month mentioned in the Qur’an, knowing that this month bears the name Ramadan before Islam and was also called “Natiq”, as fasting was known in previous religions, but without being linked to the month of Ramadan.

Radiation and heat

Ammar Yahya, the linguistic editor of the Al-Jazeera website, says that the root “rmd” indicates the meaning of sharpness in something from free and others.

And he explains, “Ramda is intense heat, hence the intense heat that the sun causes in stones or sand.” The ancients took advantage of this intense heat to hunt antelopes, and they followed the antelope at the time of migration, even if they exhausted it and its legs disintegrated due to the intense heat, they took it, and poisoned it. That is: “Rammadah.” As for sheep, it is to graze in extreme heat.

And he continues on his blog on the Learn Arabic website, "This is about antelopes and sheep. As for al-Fasal (singular of the fasal, which is the son of a camel) its ramdah is to be blessed when the day is very hot and the ground burns its slippers, which is the time of the forenoon, and in the merit of supererogatory prayers at this time, the Messenger of God said The Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him: “The prayer of the observant, if the weaning season begins.”

But what does Ramadan have to do with the heat, and where did it get its name from?

The linguistic editor interested in issues of thought, language and education answers his question, “It is true that the fasting person takes a bath during this month and the heat hits his stomach due to severe thirst. Some of them are the season of dew and rain, so they called it spring, and it coincided with the last days of Ramadan, the heat and its intensity, so they called it Ramadan.

And the linguistic editor continues, "The Arabs have improved the expression of feelings with sensory meanings, so they call the burning of rage "the ramsha", as if it is a real heat that burns the stomach, and says: The matter may sicken him, that is, anger and hurt him."

And he added, “This chapter is not specific to intense heat only, but rather indicates the meaning of sharpness in general, as we mentioned. Therefore, everything sharp is rammed.” It is said: This is a ramid knife, a ramed blade, and a ramid blade.

And he continues, "And if you want to make a knife out of iron, then you sand it between two smooth stones until it becomes soft.

He concludes, "This is the origin of the name Ramadan, but this blessed month - despite the heat and hardship in its name - is a season for forgiveness, a station for righteousness and charity, and a path to contentment."

Old Arab designations

Abu Bakr bin Duraid al-Dawsi (223 AH/837 AD - 321 AH/933 AD), a poet and writer of the line of the king of the Arabs Malik bin Fahm al-Dawsi al-Azdi, reported that “when the names of the months were transferred from the ancient language, they called them by the times in which they occurred, and this month coincided with severe heat, and it was said Rather, because the obligation to fast coincided with severe heat, and it was said that fasting is an ancient worship, as if they called it that, because they took pleasure in it from the heat of hunger and the suffering of its severity.

It is said that the first person to give it these names was “Kilab bin Murra” from the Quraysh, and it was also said that the Arabs used to flash their weapons in Ramadan, that is, pound them, and sharpen them between stones in preparation for war in Shawwal before the sacred months.

The Arabs also called the holy month “natiqa” - this was mentioned by al-Mawardi, al-Zamakhshari and others - because it purifies them, i.e., it disturbs them by its severity on them, and to say that Ramadan is derived from al-Ramd, i.e., free, was also narrated by al-Asma`i on the authority of Abu Amr.

And from this their saying about the reason for its name: Because hearts take in it from the heat of exhortation and thought in the matter of the Hereafter, as sand and stones take from the heat of the sun, and sand and stones are heated.

In his book, "Ramadan Dictionary," the Egyptian academic Fouad Morsi (1925-1990) conveys various opinions about the reason for naming the holy month by his name. He says, "It is permissible that the name Ramadan is derived from Ramadh, which is rain that comes before autumn and finds the earth hot and scorching."

He continues, "But the prevailing opinion is that it is derived from the Ramada and that it used to come with the Ramada every year, because the pre-Islamic Arabs used to calculate their history with a lunar-solar year (mixing) and add 9 months every 24 years...".

Morsi continues, "It is most likely that this calculation is followed in Makkah, not the desert and the Bedouins who live in it who do not do well in the calculation, but they follow the people of Makkah next to the Kaaba, because it is the law of the Kaaba that enacts them prohibiting fighting in months of the year and permitting it in other months."

the odds

The scholar Mahmoud Hamdi Al-Falaki (1230 AH / 1815 AD - 1302 AH / 1885 AD) - an Egyptian scientist and one of the most prominent astronomers in the modern era - discussed this issue in his treatise, which he called “The Results of Understanding in the Calendar of Arabs Before Islam” (1858 AD). They use the lunar date in the period of fifty years before the Hijrah” while the account holders used to act in advance and delay if they wanted war in the sacred months or wanted to prevent it in other months according to their whims and benefits, and from here was the prohibition of Islam for bad people, because they allow it or forbid it as they want, The matter is not correct on this account after the imposition of fasting and Hajj on known days.

Morsi concludes in his book that there are 3 possibilities for the meaning of the name Ramadan and its derivations, the first of which is that “Ramadan is one of the names of God Almighty.”

But this is from the hadith of Abu Ma’shar Najih, which is weak, and the hadith is “fabricated” according to most Islamic sites, and thus it negates that it is one of the names of God stipulated in the Qur’an, Sunnah and Islamic aphorisms.

As for the second possibility, according to Morsi, it is that the name Ramadan is “derived from the sick, meaning clouds or rain at the end of summer and early autumn,” and the third is that it is a name “derived from rain, which is intense heat from the impact of the sun’s rays on the ground,” and the latter is common and likely.