Asalamu 3alykum
It is an established historical fact that in Arabic and Hebrew, the calendar day yaum / yom [יום / يوم] lasts from sunset to sunset.
Yes I agree. But as the article illustrated the historical view on when the day begins does not seem to concur with how the Quran perceives when the day begins. Its not a big issue but as can be seen from the article with some academic research of the Quran one was able to see the way of how the Quran views when the day begins. I found this pretty amazing Masha'Allah.
This is an intrinsic part of Semitic tradition that predated the Quran
Possibly so. But that does not tell us much about how God views the day.
One important note that is mentioned in the article is that a 24 hour count can begin at any time of the day. This is absolutely true. Its just a relative point where any agreed community can start from and go from there. But whatever any community decides does not mean it is right or wrong.
We are just discussing how God views the day according to the Quran.
Similarly God views that there are 12 month in a year. Of course humans if they wished could of set a 20 month system. But in God's register/measure He measures it on a 12 month system.
To deny this, necessitates believing that Arabs and Jews and Muslims spread out across the world somehow collaborated with each other to invent such a tradition after the time of the revelation of the Quran. Which to me is too incredulous a conspiracy theory.
No this does not mean that they spread out across the world and somehow collaborated with each other to invent that tradition. It could simply of been in-situ before the Quran's appearance by the Jewish community and the Arab world could of adopted it. It does not mean its right or wrong. But that does not mean the Jewish community was following what God viewed the day to be commencing at. That way their ways and this just shows that the Arabs/Muslims were either not concerned with how God viewed the day or the topic did not come to light. God knows best.
examples 7,8 - referencing 2:187 - is the best support that yaum starts with layl. The verse describes what we do during layl (eating), followed by what we do during nahar (fasting), thus completing one yaum of the fasting day.
The night of the fast "laylata assiyam" means there needs to be a fast followed by a night and not a night followed a fast. I cannot wrap my head around it any other way. So my explanation is based of that understanding.
If we were to accept the traditional understating of a new day beginning at sunset(magrib) which is allegedly night(layl) then the phrase "laylata assiyam" (the night of the fast) would be somewhat problematic with the days of Ramadan because the night of the first fast would be entered into the second day of Ramadan. There was no fast followed by night in one full Ramadan day(yaum) if the day of Ramadan begins at night.
So in other words according to the traditional view first day of Ramadan begins at sunset(night) which is before the fast, then at dawn fasting begins which seems to be somewhere in the middle of the day, then not till sunset which is day two of Ramadan is when the relationship between spouses are permitted which is after the first fast.
I do not agree that هَا in 91:4 is describing that 'brightness' is concealed. The most visual experience we have is of the sun being concealed, and this is the event described over and over in the Quran.
What seems to conceal the sun is the horizon. As the sun moves down below the horizon it is no longer seen. But the brightness in the sky still seems to be there. The brightness of the sun even at its setting(magrib) still seems to cast its light to the other side of the horizon in the east.
The night over takes this brightness slowly very soon after the sun goes down. Its a matter of when one starts seeing that darkness that has started to appear somewhere in the sky. If there is no change right at sunset from the very moment before complete sunset in the colour and appearance in the sky then night has not yet begun. Not until something noticeable has begun to happen in the skies colour or appearance till the night begins in my humble opinion. Possibly due to the shadow of the earth in the sky or the disappearance of the suns light or brightness that illuminates.
The opposite starts to happen at dawn. The sun is still well below the horizon but its light starts to casts slowly over the sky till at one point night is no longer visible and daylight has taken over. This could still be before the sun has risen.
Where I live the difference in appearance seems to be 20 to 30 minutes.
example 5 - It took me some time to wrap my head around this one. The article did not consider the case of the wind starting during daylight hours, but yaum starting with layl (i.e., picture 2, with a leading partial day instead of a trailing one). That will also be 7 nights and 8 days.
The eight days mentioned in the verse is a complete 1 day cycle. You have to pick 1 point to start and end from.
If you start from dawn to dawn as a complete day (ayyamin), you get 1 night time in the middle of that day cycle. So the 8th day would be officially a day but punishment stoped before the night.
If you start from night(or sunset which is considered night traditionally) to night to be considered a complete day(ayammin), you get 1 day time cycle but 2 nights.
Hope you understand that position. Its not about daylight its about how one defines a day(ayyamin) from what start and what end and how many nights are in that cycle.
For example if one was to say a day starts at dawn and ends at noon that is considered one day(ayyamin). There would be no nights in that. Of course it won't make sense but just trying to give you the idea of whats going on.
And I do not agree that such over-analysis built on the many "implies" is necessary. Nor that a conspiracy theory is warranted in this case. Quran is a clear and simple book, whatever is true will be evident and obvious.
I don't think anyone has said any of this has been done on purpose or has been conspired in anyway. There just seems to be a different view from what the Quran recognizes.
The Quran also seems to be lenient on different systems. Take this for example,
18:25 "And they remained in their cave three hundred years and (some) add (another) nine."Here we see that some people were adding the time as 300 years and some as 309 years. So in other words it might not be such a big issue as said before a 24hr or even 50 hr clock can start at any time but we are just focusing on how the correct system in God's perspective is viewed. Ultimately my concern is about if we should be fasting at sunset or till night. This does not have anything to do when the day begins
So please share your definition of "shortly". Is it 1 minute? 2 minutes? 5 minutes? 30 minutes? And what do you base it on?
The verse commands us to "thumma atimmoo assiyama ila allayli" and complete the fast till the night. Despite the different appearance in the sky in different zones of the earth, I wait till I notice a difference in the sky light and wait to see if any of the night or darkness starts to appear even a little indicates night approached or begun. I do not notice this till about 20 to 30 min. I also noticed that different seasons or months have differences. Some month show darkness appearing 10 minutes after the sunset if my memory serves me right.
Tthe other reason I support this view is that the magrib prayer and the ending of the fast are commanded in different terminology.
Because of that I find they have different times and arguably if they were expected to be done both at sunset, one may expect a detail on what is to be performed first, do we eat first, or do we pray first.
If I found the command of magrib prayer and ending the fast to be worded closely and yet the Quran did not detail what to perform first I would say then that would be an option and a tradition on what suits the people best. But that is not the case as the two requirements are worded differently on when to be performed.
I find this proves the Quran's veracity and details to be even more accepting.
At the end ones best approach are expected towards their duties.
Thanks for sharing your comments as well
Salam