Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Ramadan is called the month of the Quran because it was during this month the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad through Angel Gabriel.
Shedding more light on this interesting question, the late Sheikh Sayyed Ad-Darsh, former Chairman of the UK Shari`ah Council, states:
Brother, may you have a happy and blessed Ramadan! Ramadan, as you have stated, is the month of the Quran as well as the month of all good deeds.
A Muslim is recommended to read the Quran and do good deeds in this blessed month as much as he can. In this context, we recall the Prophetic hadith addressed by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to his Companions on the last day of Shaban:
“O people! A great month has come; a blessed month in which is a night better than a thousand months; a month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month), shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time; and whoever performs an obligatory deed in (this month), shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Paradise. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer’s sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Hell-Fire, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all.” (Ibn Khuzaimah)
Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed. Allah says: {The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month.} (Al-Baqarah 2:185)
This verse establishes the link between Ramadan and the Quran. We know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was in the habit of retreating to Mount Hira during Ramadan and it was during one of these periods of contemplation that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him with the first revelation.
So, Ramadan marks the beginning of the call to Islam and the prophetic mission of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
When Ramadan fasting became obligatory, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to recite the Quran with Gabriel. Gabriel used to descend from the heavens every night to read everything that had so far been revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
When we offer our Tarawih prayers, it is recommended that over the course of the month the whole Quran be completed. This presents a great opportunity for those who haven’t read the whole Quran to hear it.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.
Source: Excerpted, with slight modifications, from http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/Ad-Darsh/3.1.97.htm