white thread/black thread

During Ramadan even teddy bears have to wait until sunset to have a picnic


There is so much more to Ramadan than fasting, but it happens to be the aspect that blue-eyesight sees the most, so I have been whining about...oops...I mean talking about it more. (It is so hard to remain an unbiased blogger when Starbucks is closed. ) I will try to wrap up the fasting aspect of Ramadan and then move on to other things.

To be a responsible blogger, one must listen to the demands of your readers. I left a question unanswered last week and I will attempt to rectify that today. I think this is going to require me to quote some Koran scripture....oh boy, here we go.

The question was, "What does the white thread have to do with the start of the daily fast?"

`Adiyy Ibn Hatim said "When the Ayah 'Eat and drink until the white thread becomes distinct to you ... was revealed, I took a black thread and a white thread and placed them underneath my pillow. During the night I looked at them to if I could distinguish between them. In the morning I went the Messenger of Allah and mentioned that to him and he said: 'It is the black of the night and the white of the day.' " [Bukhari and Muslim]

“Allah’s Messenger taught me the prayer and fasting, he said: ‘Pray such and such, and fast and when the sun sets then eat and drink until the white thread is clear to you from the black thread, and fast for 30 days unless you see the new moon before that so I took two threads of wool, one black and one white ... (the hadith).’” abridged from Fathul-Baaree (4/132-133).]

" ... Eat and drink until the white thread becomes distinct to you from the black thread ... " and "of the dawn" was not revealed, some people who intended to fast, tied black and white threads to their legs and went on eating till they differentiated between the two. Allah then revealed the words, "of the dawn", and it became clear that meant night and day. [Recorded by al-Bukhârî]

Blue-eyesight can see that this is a scripture that can be taken figuratively or literally. Most Muslims think the white thread represents the dawn and the black one represents the night. However, I can also picture a Bedouin propped up in his tent in the dark with a plate on his lap and a white string on one toe and a black on the other, shoveling in the food until he can tell the difference in black and white. With the advent of modern astronomy, most rely on published times for sunrise and sunset, but some still tie on the strings. I wonder if they are called "stringers" and if they associate with the "non-stringers". Somehow this all sounds very familiar.
Did you know that there is a chapter in the Koran called "Mary"?