Website: www.aaiil.uk
Some Aspects of Fasting
Friday
Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz,
for Lahore
Ahmadiyya UK, 28 February 2025
|
“O you who believe, fasting is
prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may
guard against evil.” — The Quran, ch. 2, Al-Baqarah, v. 183 |
یٰۤاَیُّہَا
الَّذِیۡنَ
اٰمَنُوۡا
کُتِبَ
عَلَیۡکُمُ
الصِّیَامُ
کَمَا
کُتِبَ عَلَی
الَّذِیۡنَ
مِنۡ
قَبۡلِکُمۡ
لَعَلَّکُمۡ
تَتَّقُوۡنَ
﴿۱۸۳﴾ۙ |
This is the first verse in the
section of verses of the Holy Quran which ordain fasting in the month of Ramadan.
It is important to remember that fasting in Islam does not just consist of not eating
or drinking, but in fact abstaining from every kind of selfish desire and
wrong-doing. The fast is not merely of the body, but essentially that of the
spirit. The physical fast is really only a symbol and outward expression of
the real, inner fast. A person who is fasting is actually saying: “I am
refraining from all wrong actions that I desire to do, by refraining
from my deepest physical desires.” In this connection, the Holy Prophet
Muhammad has said:
“He who does not give up uttering falsehood (qaul
az-zūr) and acting according to it, God has no need of his giving up
his food and drink.” (Bukhari, hadith number 1903)
In another version of this hadith,
there is a small addition: “He who does
not give up uttering falsehood and acting according to it, and ignorance”
(Bukhari, hadith 6057). The word for ignorance here is jahl. So all talk
and behaviour based on ignorance must be avoided as well.
Imam Bukhari has given this version of
this hadith the heading: “The word of Allah: And shun false words (qaul
az-zūr)”. He is referring to a verse of the Quran in which it is
stated: “And shun (or refrain from saying) false words (qaul az-zūr)”
(22:30). What he is pointing out is that the Quran itself forbids Muslims to
speak these things called qaul az-zūr, or false words. So this
command in hadith not to speak false words is supported by the Quran itself.
There is something which people call
the niyyah or “intention” of fasting. The word niyyah
means intention, aim or purpose in
doing something. But it is wrongly thought that the niyyah of fasting is
the repeating of certain words in which you say that you intend to keep the fast.
On Ramadan timetables
and other information about fasting, these words of niyyah, or intention
to fast, are often quoted in Arabic and these are supposed to be uttered when
starting the fast. This saying of the niyyah or intention
by a set formula of words is not mentioned anywhere in the Holy Quran and the
Hadith. Only in the case of voluntary fasting outside Ramadan, there is mention
in Hadith of certain Companions declaring their intention during the day to keep
a voluntary fast that day, when they had not eaten anything up to that time of
the day (Bukhari, hadith 1924 and its chapter heading). It is understandable
why in that case the intention needs to be said in words. But there is no point
in expressing such an intention when starting a fast in the month of Ramadan,
when you know that you are going to be fasting. But this niyyah has
another meaning.
In Sahih
Bukhari, there is a chapter in the book on Fasting which is headed:
“He who fasts during Ramadan having faith (in Allah) and
seeking His pleasure and having an intention (niyyah).”
The words of the Holy Prophet are
then given, saying:
“People will be raised up (on the Day of Judgment) according to their
intentions (niyyah).” (Bukhari, heading above hadith 1901).
Similar words also occur in Hadith in
regard to other acts of worship. The meaning is that those who carry them out,
for example, prayer or fasting, merely as a ritual, cannot benefit from them.
Only those can benefit who understand their aim and purpose and try to achieve
it. For them, the fasts can bring such spiritual progress that it protects them
from committing sin. The aim or purpose of fasting is,
according to the Quran, to make the fast: (1) a spiritual discipline, meaning
to attain nearness to God and to have Him uppermost and closest in one’s mind when
performing any actions, (2) to make it a moral discipline, meaning to refrain
from all evil, selfishness and greed, and (3) a means of feeling the
deprivation that other people have to endure and to use your resources to
alleviate their distress. So our niyyah of fasting are not any set words
that we need to utter, but it is to think about what we are intending to
achieve through fasting.
There is a well-known hadith in
Bukhari as follows:
“Fasting is an armour (or shield) with which one protects
oneself; so let not him (who fasts) utter immodest (or foul) speech, nor let
him act in an ignorant manner; and if a man quarrels with him or abuses him, he
should say twice, I am fasting. And by Him in Whose hand is my soul, the odour
of the mouth of one fasting is sweeter in the estimation of Allah than the
odour of musk — he gives up his food and his drink and his (sexual) desire for
My sake; fasting is for Me and I will grant its reward; and a virtue brings
reward ten times like it.” (hadith 1894, see also hadith 1904)
It is not
refraining from food that makes the breath of the faster so sweet; it is refraining
from foul speech and abuse and evil words and deeds of all kinds, so much so
that he does not utter an offensive word even in response. What reaches God is
the sweetness of behaviour of the fasting person, not the sweetness of
his breath. While a fasting person undergoes a physical discipline by curbing
his bodily desires, that is to say, the craving for food and drink, and the sex
appetite, he is actually required to undergo a direct moral discipline by
avoiding all kinds of evil words and evil deeds. Note also here God saying that
the person fasting is doing it “for Me”. This means fasting to attain nearness
to God, fasting purely for the purposes for which God has ordained fasting. If during
fasting something happens which could lead the fasting person away from the
high objective he is seeking to attain, he should control his urges and
refrain from following them. In the sight of God, the fast
loses its value not only by taking food or drink but also by telling a lie,
using foul language, acting unfaithfully, or doing an evil deed.
Another
well-known hadith in Bukhari runs as follows:
“When the month of Ramadan starts, the doors of heaven are
opened and the doors of hell are closed, and the Satans are shackled in
chains.” (hadith 1899)
The opening of the doors of Paradise and the closing of the doors of hell are
for those who benefit from the fasts of Ramadan and build in themselves the
true spirit of Ramadan in their lives. The devils are chained for the person who keeps the fast because
he curbs and chains his lower passions — which are the desires
which the devil arouses to make a person fall into evil. The doors of Hell are closed
on him because he closes the door on doing all evil which leads to hell.
The doors of Heaven are opened for him because, by rising above physical
desires and by devoting himself to the service of humanity, he opens the
door to lead a new kind of life in this world. So it is by fasting in its
true spirit that the fasting person himself or herself, by their own action, chains the devils, closes the doors of hell and
opens the doors of heaven.
All the
commandments of the Quran are meant for those who are full-grown and capable of
understanding what they are doing and why. This also applies to the commands
relating to fasts. The under-age youngsters should not fast, but the Caliph
Umar is quoted as saying: “Even our children are fasting” (Bukhari, heading
above h. 1960). The idea behind it may have been to habituate children to
fasting. Otherwise, only such people are under obligation to fast who are physically
fit and capable of understanding the purpose of fasting. There is no
harm if children are asked to keep a few fasts in order to get them accustomed
to it, provided there is no great hardship involved. However, the teachings of
Islam do not require non-adults to fast.
As to what breaks the fast, the
three things which a person should abstain from in fasting are eating, drinking
and having sexual intercourse. If any of these three acts is done out of free
will and intentionally during the fast, this would break the fast. But if done
by mistake, which may be by forgetfulness or under the wrong impression that
the fast has ended, the fast remains and must be completed. It is stated in a
hadith:
“If he (the fasting person) forgets and eats or drinks, he
should complete his fast, for Allah fed him and made him drink.” (Bukhari,
hadith 1933)
It is stated in traditional
Islamic literature that if a fast is broken on a cloudy day, under the
impression that the sun has set, and the sun then appears, then also the fast
should be completed till sunset. It is not invalidated. In our modern times,
this should not happen as we know from our electronic devices and clocks around
us what the present time is and we know from published timetables when the
fast ends. However, mistakes are still possible through confusion and misunderstanding.
Therefore this principle still applies to such circumstances, that if you
thought the fast had ended and ate something but then realized that it had not
ended, you simply continue the fast till it actually ends. You don’t need to
repeat the fast or pay any kind of penalty for it.
The Holy
Quran does not mention any punishment to be applied to someone who deliberately
breaks the fast. In a Hadith report, the Holy Prophet suggested various acts of
expiation or penance to a person who himself admitted to breaking a fast deliberately.
However, that man expressed his inability to perform any of them. That
incident, which I will mention in a later khutba, shows that it is
sufficient that the violator should be sincerely repentant.
So,
may Allah enable us to complete our fasts in the true spirit of fasting, learn
lessons from it, and become better human beings, Ameen.
Website:
www.aaiil.uk