FASTING (SAWM)
FASTING (SAWM)
Fasting is abstaining completely from eating, drinking, intimate sexual
contacts and smoking from the break of dawn till sunset. It is a matchless
Islamic institution which teaches man the principle of sincere love to God.
Fasting teaches man a creative sense of hope, devotion, patience,
unselfishness, moderation, willpower, wise saving, sound budgeting, mature
adaptability, healthy survival, discipline, spirit of social belonging, unity
and brotherhood.
Obligatory fasting is done once a year for the period of the month of Ramadan;
the ninth month of the Islamic year. Recommended fasting includes every Monday
and Thursday of every week, three days in the middle of each Islamic month,
six days after Ramadan following the Feast Day and a few days of the two
months before Ramadan. Fasting of Ramadan is a worship act which is obligatory
on every adult Muslim, male or female if he/she is mentally and physically fit
and not on a journey. Exceptions: women during their period of menstruation
and while nursing their child, and also in case of travel and sickness for
both men and women.
Sawm
The fourth pillar of Islam is fasting. Allah prescribes daily fasting for all able, adult Muslims during the whole of the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar calendar, beginning with the sighting of the new moon. Exempted from the fast are the very old and the insane. On the physical side, fasting is from first light of dawn until sundown, abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations. On the moral, behavioral side, one must abstain from lying, malicious gossip, quarreling and trivial nonsense.
Those who are sick, elderly, or on a journey, and women who are menstruating, pregnant, or nursing are permitted to break the fast, but must make up an equal number of days later in the year. If physically unable to do so, they must feed a needy person for each day missed. Children begin to fast (and to observe the prayers) from puberty, although many start earlier.
Although fasting is beneficial to the health, it is regarded principally as a method of self-purification. By cutting oneself off from worldly pleasures and comforts, even for a short time, the fasting person gains true sympathy for those who go hungry regularly, and achieves growth in his spiritual life, learning discipline, self-restraint, patience and flexibility.
In addition to the fast proper, one is encouraged to read the entire Qur'an. In addition, special prayers, called Tarawih, are held in the mosque every night of the month, during which a whole section of the Qur'an (Juz') is recited, so that by the end of the month the entire Qur'an has been completed. These are done in remembrance of the fact that the revelation of the Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was begun during Ramadan.
During the last ten days - though the exact day is never known and may not even be the same every year - occurs the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr). To spend that night in worship is equivalent to a thousand months of worship, i.e. Allah's reward for it is very great.
On the first day of the following month, after another new moon has been sighted, a special celebration is made, called 'Id al-Fitr. A quantity of staple food is donated to the poor (Zakat al-Fitr), everyone has bathed and put on their best, preferably new, clothes, and communal prayers are held in the early morning, followed by feasting and visiting relatives and friends.
There are other fast days throughout the year. Muslims are encouraged to fast six days in Shawwal, the month following Ramadan, Mondays and Thursdays, and the ninth and tenth, or tenth and eleventh of Muharram, the first month of the year. The tenth day, called Ashurah, is also a fast day for the Jews (Yom Kippur), and Allah commanded the Muslims to fast two days to distinguish themselves from the People of the Book.
While fasting per se is encouraged, constant fasting, as well as monasticism, celibacy, and otherwise retreating from the real world, are condemned in Islam. Fasting on the two festival days, 'Id al-Fitr and 'Id al-Adha, the feast of the Hajj, is strictly forbidden.
FASTING (SIYAAM)
Fasting, or siyaam, has two meanings. Generally, siyaam or sawm, is derived from
the root sama, to restrain from normal things, such as eating, drinking, and
talking. If an individual refrains from these things, he is considered saaim,
the observer of fast. Al-Qur'an uses the word generally when it revealed the
conversation between the angel and Mary, the mother of Jesus, as the angel
instructed her: "...And if you do see any man, say, 'I have vowed to remain
silent for Allah.'" (Al-Qur'an 19:26)
The phrase "to remain silent" is the interpretation of the Arabic word, "sawm."
The reason for this interpretation is that "sawm" cannot mean fast, i.e.
restraint from food, because Mary had just been told to eat from the palm tree.
This general meaning is common in the Arabic language.
In the Shari'ah, Islamic law, the word "sawm" means and implies a specific act,
that, is, "to worship Allah, abstaining, with intention to please Him from fast
breakers, such as physical nourishment, food, drink, and sexual intercourse or a
lustful discharge of semen from the period between the break of dawn until
sundown.
As this definition implies, the Islamic fasting is total abstinence from any
food particles passing through the mouth or nose, as well as drinks of any kind
- water, milk, juices, etc. - along with abstinence from sexual association
during the day that commences from the break of dawn till sunset.
Although the definition indicates restraining the stomach and private parts, the
tongue, eyes, ears and other limbs are equally obligated to be restrained if the
faster wants to gain the total rewards of fasting. This is why the Messenger of
Allah (saas) has been reported as saying in a hadith by Abu Hurairah:
"He who does not desist from obscene language and acting obscenely (during the
period of fasting), Allah has no need that he did not eat or drink." (Bukhari
Muslim)
In another hadith by Abu Hurairah (raa), the Prophet (saas) said: "Fasting is
not only to restrain from food and drink, fasting is to refrain from obscene
(acts). If someone verbally abuses you or acts ignorantly towards you, say (to
them) 'I am fasting; I am fasting.'" (Ibn Khuzaimah)
Indeed, these two reports imply fasting will not be complete until one observes
three elements:
1. Restraining the stomach and the private parts from the breakers of the fast -
food and drink,
2. restraining the jawarih, the other body parts, which may render the fast
worthless despite the main factors of hunger and thirst; so the tongue, for
instance, must avoid backbiting, slander, and lies; the eyes should avoid
looking into things considered by the Lawgiver as unlawful; the ears must stop
from listening to conversations, words, songs, and lyrics that spoil the spirit
of fasting; and,
3. restraining of the heart and mind from indulging themselves in other things
besides dhikir Allah (remembrance of Allah)
As-Siyam (The fast)
As-Siyam, in the month of Ramadan is the fourth pillar of Islam. Through
fasting all aspects of worship become integrated, and the sense of obedience,
and the will to observe is strengthened. Fasting is an act of worship, and a
means of bringing man closer to Allah, refining the manners, self-restraint
and setting the behavior aright. It is also a means of maintaining the fear of
Allah.
Allah says: you who believe fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to
those before you, that you may attain piety.
Fasting was prescribed to previous nations too as a means of purification and
help against life's inconveniences, because fasting requires patience, and
patience is one of the strongest means for acquiring the happiness in the
Hereafter. Allah saysAnd seek Allah's help through perseverance and prayer
Why Do Muslims Fast?Why Do Muslims Fast?
by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Certain truths are by nature evident and need not be discussed in normal
circumstances. But, in a day and age when the most evident truths are shrouded
by the clouds of doubt and questioned, one is forced to discuss even the most
obvious of them. One such truth is the necessity for an ascetic element in human
life. Without an element of self-denial and asceticism no religion and therefore
no human culture is possible. One must withdraw occasionally from the full life
of the senses even in order to be able to enjoy the fruit of sensual perception.
As the Taoist saying affirms, it is the empty space of the wheel which makes the
wheel. It is only a certain degree of restraint from the material objects of the
senses that makes even the life of the senses balanced, not to speak of making
possible an opening in the human soul for the spiritual life.
One such practice of restraint is fasting, promulgated in Islam as obligatory
for the month of Ramadân and recommended for other periods of the year. As the
Holy Qur’ân asserts, it is a practice which existed in older religions and in
Islam it was only revived and institutionalized in the form of the sawm of
Ramadân. Fasting during this month possesses, of course, many social and
external benefits and features which have been discussed often and in fact even
somewhat overemphasized in certain quarters, where the chief virtue of fasting
is reduced to charity towards the poor. This element of charity is, of course,
there but like all true charity it becomes spiritually significant only when it
is directed towards God. And in fasting it is the obeying of the Divine Will
which has as its fruit charity towards the poor and the needy and an actual
participation in their hunger and thirst.
But the most difficult aspect of the fast is the edge of the sword of abstention
directed toward the carnal soul, the al-nafs al-ammârah of the Holy Qur’ân. In
fasting, the rebellious tendencies of the carnal soul are gradually dampened and
pacified through a systematic submission of these tendencies to the Divine Will,
for at every moment of hunger the soul of the Muslim is reminded that it is in
order to obey a Divine command that the passions of the carnal soul go unheeded.
That is also why the fast does not include only food but also abstention from
every form of lust and carnal passion.
As a result of this systematic restraint, the human soul becomes aware that it
is independent of its immediate natural environment and conscious that it is in
this world but not of it. A person who fasts with complete faith becomes aware
very rapidly that he is a pilgrim in this world and that he is a creature
destined for a goal beyond this material existence. The world about him loses
some of its materiality and gains an aspect of "vacuity" and transparence which
in the case of the contemplative Muslim leads directly to a contemplation of God
in His creation.
The ethereal and "empty" nature of things is, moreover, compensated by the
appearance of those very things as Divine gifts. Food and drink which are taken
for granted throughout the year reveal themselves during the period of fasting
more than ever as gifts of heaven (ni‘mah) and gain a spiritual significance of
a sacramental nature.
To fast is also to wear the armor of purity against the passions of the world.
It is to incorporate even "physically" in one's body the purity of death which
is of course coupled with spiritual birth. In fasting, man is reminded that he
has chosen the side of God over the world of passions. That is why the Holy
Prophet loved fasting so much. It was a basic element of that "Muhammadan
spiritual poverty" (faqr), about which he said, "al-faqr fakhrî" (spiritual
poverty is my glory).
This death of the passions cleanses the human soul and empties it of the putrid
water of its negative psychic residues. The individual and through him the
Islamic community is renovated through this rite and reminded of its moral and
spiritual obligations and goals. That is why the arrival of the blessed month is
greeted with joy. For in it the doors of heaven are opened further for the
faithful and the Divine Compassion descends upon those who seek it. To have
completed the fast of Ramadân is to have undergone a rejuvenation and rebirth
which prepares each Muslim to face another year with determination to live and
act according to the Divine Will. The fast also bestows a spiritual perfume upon
the human soul whose fragrance can be perceived long after the period of
abstinence has come to an end. It provides for the soul a source of energy upon
which it feeds throughout the year. The holy month has therefore been called
"the blessed", mubârak, one in which the grace or barakah of God flows upon the
Islamic community and rejuvenates its deepest sources of life and action.
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