Website: www.aaiil.uk
Making Fasting
Convenient
Friday
Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz,
for Lahore
Ahmadiyya UK, 14 March 2025
“The month of Ramadan is that in which the Quran was revealed, a guidance to people and clear proofs of guidance and the Criterion. So whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast in it, and whoever is sick or on a journey, (he shall fast) a (like) number of other days. Allah desires ease for you, and He does not desire hardship for you, and (He desires) that you should complete the number and that you should exalt the greatness of Allah for having guided you and that you may give thanks.” — ch. 2, Al-Baqarah, v. 185 |
شَہۡرُ
رَمَضَانَ
الَّذِیۡۤ
اُنۡزِلَ فِیۡہِ
الۡقُرۡاٰنُ
ہُدًی
لِّلنَّاسِ
وَ بَیِّنٰتٍ
مِّنَ الۡہُدٰی
وَ الۡفُرۡقَانِ
ۚ فَمَنۡ
شَہِدَ مِنۡکُمُ
الشَّہۡرَ
فَلۡیَصُمۡہُ
ؕ وَ مَنۡ
کَانَ مَرِیۡضًا
اَوۡ عَلٰی
سَفَرٍ
فَعِدَّۃٌ
مِّنۡ اَیَّامٍ
اُخَرَ ؕ یُرِیۡدُ
اللّٰہُ
بِکُمُ الۡیُسۡرَ
وَ لَا یُرِیۡدُ
بِکُمُ الۡعُسۡرَ ۫ وَ
لِتُکۡمِلُوا
الۡعِدَّۃَ
وَ لِتُکَبِّرُوا
اللّٰہَ عَلٰی
مَا ہَدٰىکُمۡ
وَ
لَعَلَّکُمۡ
تَشۡکُرُوۡنَ
﴿۱۸۵﴾ |
In
Sahih Bukhari, it is related what various early Muslims, including some Companions
of the Holy Prophet, did during fasting which does not break the fast or what
they said about it. This makes fasting less of a physical burden and more
convenient to undertake. To cool himself, Ibn Umar moistened his cloth and placed it over him while he
was fasting. Another entered a bath while he was fasting. Ibn Abbas said: There
is no harm if one tastes the food in the cooking-pot or anything else. Al-Hasan
said: There is no harm for the fasting person to rinse his mouth and getting
cooled. It has been reported about the Holy Prophet that he brushed his teeth
(with miswak) while he was fasting. Ata said: If a person swallows his
spittle while brushing his teeth I cannot say that his fast is nullified. Ibn
Sirin said: There is no harm in brushing teeth with fresh miswak.
Somebody said to him that it has a taste. He said: Water has a taste and you
rinse with it.
Ata said: If the fasting person takes
water into his nose and it goes into the throat unintentionally, there is no
harm. Al-Hasan said: If a fly goes into the throat, there is nothing for him to
do about it. He also said: There is no harm if the person fasting puts water
into the nostrils provided it does not reach his throat. Ata said: If after
rinsing the mouth, he spits out all the water from it, there is no harm
provided he does not swallow spittle and what remains in his mouth. Abu
Hurairah reported that vomiting does not break the fast because he expels
something, not takes in anything.
In an
earlier Khutba I pointed out that the Holy
Quran does not mention the application of any punishment for deliberately
breaking the fast. Hadith only shows that it is sufficient that the violator
should be sincerely repentant. In this connection there is an interesting
hadith in Bukhari that a man came to the Holy Prophet in a state of alarm and
said:
“O Messenger of Allah! I am ruined. I
had sexual relations with my wife while I was fasting.”
The Holy
Prophet put to him some penances he could make. He asked him: “Can you afford
to (buy and) set a slave free?” He said: “No.” He said: “Can you fast for two
successive months?” He said: “No.” He said: “Can you afford to feed sixty needy
poor people?” He said: “No.” Then someone brought a bag of dates for the Holy
Prophet. The Holy Prophet said to him: “Take this and give it in charity.” The
man asked: “Should I give it to someone poorer than me? There is no family in
Madinah poorer than my family.” At this it is reported that the Holy Prophet
laughed heartily, until his teeth showed, and then he said to the man:
“Feed your family with it” (Bukhari, hadith 1936).
Maulana Muhammad Ali comments on this as follows: “What great mercy is there in the teachings of the Holy Prophet! No doubt,
his teachings impose hardships and difficulties by requiring prayer and
fasting. Moreover, for infringing a rule of fasting a penalty has to be
imposed. However, if a person acknowledges that he has disobeyed a command of
Allah, and is sincerely repentant, this incident shows the great sympathy and
mercy with which he is treated. The real purpose was to inculcate the spirit to
abide by the Divine commands, and it was not to impose difficulty and
hardship.”
This, of
course, is fits in with the words from the verse I quoted at the beginning:
“Allah desires ease for you, and He does not desire hardship for you”. In this
incident, the Holy Prophet, step by step, kept on making things easier for the
man.
According
to the verse I quoted at the beginning, the month of Ramadan has
been chosen for fasting because it is the month in which the Quran was
revealed. It is well-known that the Quran was revealed in portions during a
period of twenty-three years; therefore, by its revelation in the month of
Ramadan is meant that the revelation first took place in that month in a
certain year. I also pointed out in an earlier khutba that it is stated
in Hadith that during Ramadan the angel Gabriel (Jibrīl) came to
the Holy Prophet every night and went through the whole of the Quran with him,
as it was at that time. So this statement that “The month of Ramadan is that in which
the Quran was revealed” may refer to that as well.
The first revelation came to the Holy Prophet when he
was 40 years old during one of the nights towards the end of the month of
Ramadan when he was in the cave of Hira. As the Quran says:
اِنَّاۤ اَنۡزَلۡنٰہُ فِیۡ لَیۡلَۃِ الۡقَدۡرِ — “Surely We revealed it on the
Night of Majesty” (ch. 97, v. 1).
According to reports in Hadith, this was a night in
the last ten nights of Ramadan (Bukhari, hadith 2020). Of course, fasting in
Ramadan for Muslims, as we practise it, was only prescribed several years
later after the migration to Madinah, and it was in commemoration of the
revelation of the Quran. The greatest spiritual experience of the Holy Prophet
had taken place in that month. So it was considered to be the most suitable
month of the year for the spiritual discipline of the Muslim community
through fasting.
If a particular time had not been specified, the discipline
would have lost all its value. Because of choosing a fixed month, when that
month begins the whole Muslim world, from one end of the earth to the other,
has the same experience. All sections of Muslim society suddenly change the
course of their daily lives when Ramadan begins. If the basics had been left up
to the individual to decide, such as on which days to fast, or what to give up
during fasting, then it would not be a community institution which brings
people together. Moreover, individuals themselves would lose the motivation to
fast. Yes, it is true that a person is more likely to do something if he or she
sees others doing it. That natural human behaviour can be put to good,
productive use. Just like everything else in life, this behaviour of following
other people can do harm in the wrong circumstances. I may add that in Ramadan
we notice that children, who are under no obligation to fast, are very keen to
keep fasts and are excited about it. In fact, it is fasting in Ramadan that has
kept fasting in existence as an institution in Islam.
As to who is exempt from fasting, in the above verse,
v. 185, the Quran mentions the sick and those on a journey, and says that they
must complete any missed fasts. The verse before this, v. 184, says the same
but it has an addition. It says:
“But whoever among you is sick or on a journey, (he shall fast) a
(like) number of other days. And those who find it extremely hard (yuṭīqūna)
may effect redemption (fidyah) by feeding a poor one…” ch. 2, v.
184. (See note at the end.[*])
So the sick
person and the traveller who misses any fasts in Ramadan is required to
fast afterwards, when the sickness has gone or when the journey ends, and to
complete the missed fasts after Ramadan. Those who have a long-term illness are
allowed, instead of fasting, to make up for it by feeding one poor person for
every fast missed. According to Hadith, old people, pregnant women, and women
suckling a child, are exempt from fasting and should feed a poor person instead
(Bukhari, heading to hadith 4505). Those who cannot afford to feed a poor
person can perform some other act of charity, such as helping someone in need
in some other way. People engaged in hard manual labour may postpone fasting to
a time of the year when it is possible for them to fast.
There can be no precise and exact definition of sickness or
journey. It is a matter to be determined by the person himself. As regards
being on a journey, the Holy Prophet was once questioned by a person whether he
should or should not stop fasting when on a journey. He was someone who kept a
lot of fasts. The Holy Prophet replied:
“If you wish you can fast and if you wish can break
it” (Bukhari, hadith 1942–1943).
When people travelled with the Holy Prophet, those who
kept the fast did not find fault with those who broke it, nor did those who
broke the fast find fault with those who kept it. There is a saying of the Holy
Prophet: “It is not a
virtuous act to fast on a journey” (Bukhari, hadith 1946). But
he said this to a man who was in severe distress because of his fast, and
people had gathered around him to provide shade for him from the heat. In Sahih
Muslim there is a hadith as follows:
“The
Messenger of
Allah went out towards Makkah in the year of the conquest of Makkah in Ramadan.
He fasted till he reached Kurā’-ul-Ghamīm, and the people also
fasted. It was said to him: People are finding the fasting unbearable and are
waiting to see what you do. So he called for a cup of water, and he held it
high till people saw it, and then he drank. This was at the time of ‘Aṣr.
He was later informed that some people had continued to fast. He said: These
are the disobedient ones, these are the disobedient
ones.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of Fasting, ch. 15, hadith 1116)
We see here
that the Holy Prophet, during a journey in Ramadan, broke the fast at the time
of the ‘Aṣr prayer for people’s convenience, and demonstrated it
in front of them, and ordered them to do the same. As this was on a journey,
the fast was a matter of choice, even during Ramadan.
Contrast the Holy Prophet’s open action with the
behaviour of today’s religious leaders. We see examples where they take the
comfortable path themselves but deny the same to their followers, and make them
suffer hardship.
May Allah enable us to complete the fasts during this
Ramadan, and to do so in the true sense and spirit of refraining from
wrong-doing, remembering and thanking Allah and doing good to others,
especially the needy — Ameen.
[*] Note: Many interpreters of the Quran take the word yuṭīqūna,
which we have translated as “who find it extremely hard”, as meaning “those who
are able to do it”, and many of them claim that when this verse, 184, was
revealed, it was at an early stage in the beginning of fasting in Islam, and at
that initial stage fasting was made a matter of choice so that anyone who was able
to feed a poor person could do that instead of fasting. They claim that the
next verse, 185, instituted the fasting in Ramadan that we know today, and that
it abrogated this earlier-offered choice and made fasting obligatory for everyone,
except those who are sick or on a journey. But instead of bringing in
abrogation, and treating a statement in the Quran as no longer operative,
Maulana Muhammad Ali says that the redemption or fidyah
by feeding a poor one applies to those who “find it extremely hard”, who
can neither fast in Ramadan nor are they able to make up for the missed fasts
after Ramadan. Thus there is nothing abrogated.