Pillars of Islam: Sawm (Fasting)
Sawm, the fourth pillar of Islam, is another act of Ibadah.
Fasting means abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking and
conjugal relations from before sunrise to sunset. Sawm develops
self-control and helps us to overcome selfishness, greed,
laziness and other faults. Fasting teaches us to control the
love of comfort. It helps us to remain truly obedient to Allah's
commands. That is why Quran says: 'O you who believe; Fasting
is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before
you that you are expected to be truly obedient'. A truly obedient
Muslim is called a Muttaqi and his true obedience
or piety - developed through Sawm - is known as Taqwa in Islam. It keeps a person away from sin.
A Muslim is expected to remain away from all bad actions during his fast. The ultimate purpose of fasting is to make a
Muslim be able to control his passions, so that he becomes a person of good deeds and intentions.
If, on account of dull weather or dust-storm,
the new moon is not visible, it is sufficient to act on the
testimony of a trustworthy person who declares that Ramadan
has commenced.
The month of Ramadhan is a month of forgiveness,
mercy and means of avoiding the punishment of Hell. Fasts
during Ramadhan holds the promise of great reward from Allah.
In one of the Hadith, Allah says: 'fasting is specially
for Me and I will give the reward for it.' Intention is a
must for fasting. If a person somehow abstains from eating,
drinking and sexual pleasures from the true dawn till sunset
without intention to fast, it will not amount to fasting.
Arabic equivalents of fasting are Sawm and Siyam. The breaking
of fast is known as Iftar.
Fasts could be of the following eight types:
Fard Muayyan (Command with stipulation of time);
Fard Ghair Muayyan (Command without stipulation
of time);
Wajib Muayyan (ordained with stipulation of time);
Wajib Ghair Muayyan (ordained without stipulation
of time);
Masnun (the Prophets Precept);
Nafl (supererogatory);
Makruh (undesirable);
Haram (forbidden).
Fasting is a command for every Muslim man or woman who is a major and whose senses are intact. Anyone denying the
commanded nature of these fast is an unbeliever and those missing such fasts without a valid excuse are sinners and
transgressors.
Although minors are not duty bound to fast
and pray, we are directed to make them do so even before they
attain to the age of puberty in order to acclimatize them
to these holy acts. When a minor becomes strong enough to
endure the rigours of fasting, let us make him do it as much
as he can. It would further appear that only such people are
bound to fast who are physically fit. The jurists lay down
three condition viz., that of being baligh (one who
has reached the age of majority), qadir (physically
fit) and aqil (sane).
Fasts which are prophets precepts
There is no emphasized precepts of the Prophet for fasts.
But the fast that have been kept by the Prophet or we have
been exhorted to, by him to keep them are known as Masnun
fast. These are:
fasts on the 9th and 10th (two days) of the month of Muharram. These are also known as Ashurah fasts, because Ashurah is the name given to the 10th of Muharram;
a fast on Arafah (the 9th of Zul-Hijjah); and
fasts on Ayyamul-Abyad (brighter days, i.e., the 13th, 14th and 15th of every month from the Lunar Hijrah Calendar).
Supererogatory
(Nafl) Fasts
All fast other than those falling under the category of commanded
or ordained and Masnun fast are classed as supererogatory.
Some of these hold the promise of bountiful reward. They are:
Fasts on six-days of Shawwal;
fast on 15th of Shaban;
fasts on Fridays;
fasts on Mondays;
fasts on Thursdays.
Undesirable Fast
The following fasts are undesirable:
fast on Saturdays only;
fasts on Ashurahs only;
fasts on the Nauroz (a festival of Persians);
Nafl fasts by a housewife without the permission
of her husband.
Forbidden Fasts
Fasting is forbidden on the following five days of the year:
the two Id day, namely, Idul-Fitr and Idul-Adha;
the three days of Tashriq, namely the 11th, 12th, 13th of Zulhijjah.
It is mustahab to fast some days in the month of Shawwal for Muhammad said: 'Whosoever keeps the fast of Ramadan and some
seven days in the preceding month of Shawwal it is as if his whole life were a fast.'
Desirables in Fasting
The desirable acts in fasting are as follows:
eating something for Sahri (pre-dawn meals);
affirming the intention in advance i.e. on the night before;
delaying the Sahri as long as one is sure that
eating will be completed before true dawn;
making haste in Iftar when no doubt is left about
the setting of the sun;
avoiding evils like telling lies and use of abusive language;
breaking fast with dry or fresh dates or, in their absence with water.
Sahri is eating something towards the end of the night
before true dawn. Appropriate time for it is the fog end of
the night before true dawn. Eating something for Sahri
is the Prophet's precept. It will attract great reward from
Allah. Even If one is not hungry one helping or two should be
taken.
Undesirable acts in Fasting
The acts, undesirable in fasting, are as under:
chewing gum or keeping something in the mouth;
tasting something; nevertheless if a woman has a husband who is ill-natured and haughty, she is allowed to taste the salt of a preparation with the tip of the tongue;
spreading one's leg too wide in cleansing after the satisfaction of the nature's call or overdoing either in rinsing the mouth or passing water into the nose;
collecting too much saliva in the mouth and swallowing it;
back-biting, speaking falsehood and using abusive language;
demonstrating impatience or nervousness (because of fasting);
deliberately postponing the bath till after the true dawn when bath becomes due;
cleaning the teeth with a powder or by crushing the soft coal in the mouth.
Acts which are not undesirable during Fasts
putting antimony into eyes;
applying oil on the body or the hair;
taking bath to cool oneself;
brushing the teeth even with the green twig of a tree;
applying or inhailing perfume;
eating or drinking something through forgetfulness;
vomitting without intention or without outside effort;
swallowing one's saliva;
getting a fly or smoke down one's throat without intention. The above acts neither nullify nor affect the fast.
Conditions/Grounds that permits one to miss a fast
a person on journey is permitted to miss the fast. But if it does not cause undue hardship, it is preferable for him to fast;
sickness i.e. an ailment or disease which runs the risk of getting aggravated as a result of fasting;
one's being very old;
pregnancy, specially if fasting is likely to cause harm to the mother or to the baby in the womb;
suckling the baby, specially if fasting is harmful to the baby or the woman who is giving suck;
hunger or thirst being so acute as to pose a danger to life;
no fasting is permitted for women during their period of menstruation.
Both the Qada fast and the expiation become necessary if anyone of the following situations arise during a Ramadan fast:
deliberately eating or drinking anything that is caused as a diet, medicine or for the pleasure of the palate;
doing the sex act with due intention;
having one's vein punctured or applying antinomy to eyes then eating or drinking something with full intention under the impression that fast already stands broken.
A quarter sort of two seers of wheat or double this measure of barley or an equivalent amount of any other foodgrain e.g.
rice, millet etc., is the compensation for each missed fast.
The actual expiation (kaffarah) for the deliberate breaking of fast is freeing a slave. But as slave are no longer found
in this part of the world, expiation could take two forms: either to fast continuously for two months or if one does not
have strength enough to stand two months fasting, should feed sixty poor and hunger persons to their full two times a
day or in lieu give compensation to sixty persons at the rate of one seer and three quarters of wheat or price thereof or
some other foodgrains as rice, millet etc. (Seer here means seer equal in weight to eighty English one-rupee coins).
If a person through the infirmity of old age is not able to
keep the fast, he must perform Sadaqa, that is, he
must feed a poor person.
Conditions which nullify a fast
The fast is destroyed or nullified in the following cases:
if, when cleansing the teeth, a little water should pass into the throat;
if food is eaten under compulsion;
if an enema is used;
if medicine is put into the ears, nose or a wound in the head;
if a meal has been taken on the supposition that it was night when it was really day;
if after a meal taken during the night a portion of food larger than a grain of corn remains between the teeth or in cavity of a tooth;
if food is vomitted.
Fasting - A spiritual Discipline
Fasting, according to Islam, is primarily a spiritual discipline.
On two occasions in the Holy Quran (9:112, 66:5), those who
fast are called Sa'ih (from Saha meaning he travelled)
or spiritual way farers; and according to one authority, when
a person refrains, not only from food and drink, but from
all kinds of evil, he is called a Sa'ih. In speaking of Ramadan,
the Holy Quran specially refers to nearness to God, as if
its - attainment were an aim in fasting, and then adds: 'So
they should answer My call (by fasting) and believe in Me,
so that they may find the way (to Me).' (2:186). 'The Prophet
said, Fasting is a shield, so the faster should not indulge
in foul speech.... and surely the breath of a fasting man
is pleasanter to Allah than the odour of musk; he refrains
from food and drink and other desires to seek Allah's pleasure:
fasting is for Allah only.' (Bu 30:2)
The Divine presence, which may be a matter of faith to others, becomes a reality for him, and this is made possible by the
spiritual discipline underlying fasting.
Fasting - A Moral Discipline
There is also a moral discipline underlying fasting, for it is the training ground where man is taught the greatest moral
lesson of his life - the lesson that he should be prepared to suffer the greatest privation and undergo the hardest trial
rather than in that which is not permitted to him. That lesson is repeated from day to day for a whole month, and just as
physical exercise strengthens man physically, moral exercise through fasting , the exercise abstaining from everything that
is not allowed, strengthens the moral side of his life. The man who is able to rule his desires, to make them work as he
likes, in whom will power is so developed that he can command himself, is the man who has attained to true moral greatness.
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