O believers, fasting is enjoined on you as it was on those before you, so that you might become righteous. 183 Fasting is only for a certain number of days. One who is sick or on a journey has to fast the same number of days at another time. Those who can afford a redemption should feed a poor person. Good deeds performed on one's own initiative will be rewarded. However, fasting is better and will be rewarded. Would that you knew this! 184 The month of Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed; a guide for the people, the most authoritative of all guidance and a criteria to discern right from wrong. Anyone of you who knows that the month of Ramadan has begun, he must start to fast. Those who are sick or on a journey have to fast the same number of days at another time. God does not impose any hardship upon you. He wants you to have comfort so that you may complete the fast, glorify God for His having given you guidance, and that, perhaps, you would give Him thanks. 185 And when My bondsmen ask thee regarding Me, then verily I am Nigh; I answer the call of the caller when he calleth unto Me; so let them answer Me and believe in Me, haply they may be rightly directed. 186 It has been made lawful for you to go to your wives during the nights of the fast days. They are as a garment to you and you are as a garment to them. Though Allah knew that you were secretly dishonest to yourselves, He has pardoned your guilt and forgiven you. NOW you are permitted to have intercourse with your wives and enjoy what Allah has made lawful for you. You are also pemitted to eat and drink during the nights of the Fast months. until you can discern the white streak of dawn from the blackness of night. " Then (abstain from all these things and) complete your fast till night-fall. But you should not have intercourse with your wives while you confine yourselves to mosques. These are the bounds set by Allah; so do nut go near them. In this way Allah makes His Commands clear to mankind. It is expected that they will guard themselves against wrong ways. 187 And devour not your riches among yourselves in vanity, nor convey them unto the judges that ye may devour thereby a portion of other people's riches sinfully while ye know. 188