“It is a religious observance that lasts a fixed number of days. But those of you who are sick or proceeding on a journey shall compensate the fast by the same number of days at a later date. As for those who experience hardship caused by fasting, they appease Allah by expiration of feeding an indigent. Nonetheless, he who voluntarily offers to commit good shall find benevolence and benefaction indeed rewarding; and if you are able to fast, it profits you, if only you knew. Ramadan is the month of fasting during which the Quran’s poignant disclosure was revealed to guide people into all truth; its clear revelations guide them out of darkness and superstition and eliminate want of spiritual and intellectual vision into illumination and mental enlightenment, and its precepts are the standard to judge right or wrong. Therefore, he who grasps sight of the birth of the moon shall begin to fast. But he who is sick or proceeding on a journey shall fast the same number of days at a later time. Allah’s purpose is to put you at ease and not make you experience discomfort. He wants you to complete the course of fasting so that you praise Allah and extol His glorious attributes for His guidance to the path of righteousness, and that you may hopefully impel yourselves to feel gratitude.” [2:184-185]
“It has been made permissible for you to be intimate with your wives during the nights preceding the fast. Your spouses are a garment for you, as you are for them. Allah knows that you were deceiving yourselves. So He has accepted your repentance and pardoned you. So now you may be intimate with them and seek what Allah has prescribed for you. You may eat and drink until you see the light of dawn breaking the darkness of night, then complete the fast until nightfall. Do not be intimate with your spouses while you are meditating in the mosques. These are the limits set by Allah, so do not exceed them. This is how Allah makes His revelations clear to people, so they may become mindful of Him.” [2:187]
The Prophet (peace be upon him) has said:
[Bukhari, Book #31, Hadith #118] “Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “fasting is a shield (or a screen or a shelter). So, the person observing fasting should not behave foolishly and impudently, and if somebody fights with him or abuses him, he should tell him twice, “I am fasting.” The Prophet added, “By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, the smell coming out from the mouth of a fasting person is better in the sight of Allah than the smell of musk. (Allah says about the fasting person), ‘He has left his food, drink, and desires for My sake. The fast is for Me. So I will reward (the fasting person) for it, and the reward of good deeds is multiplied ten times.”