FASTING

FASTING WAS MADE OBLIGATORY FOR EVERY UMMAH

Brethren-in-Islam!

The second 'Ibadat made obligatory for you by Allah, is fasting. Fasting means abstinence during the day from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse. Like Salah this 'Ibadat has remained obligatory in the Shari’ahs of all the Prophets from the beginning. All the past Ummahs used to observe fasts in the same way as the Ummah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him). However, in regard to rules of fasting, the number of fasts and the periods required for fasting, there has been a difference among various Shari’ahs. Even today we see that fasting is ordained in most of the religions in some form or other although people have mutilated its shape by adding to it many things of their own. It has been stated in the Holy Qur'an:-

" O Muslims! Fasting has been made obligatory for you in the same way as it was made obligatory for Ummahs before you".

(Al-Qur'an 2:83)

It appears from this verse that all those Shari’ahs which were sent by Allah have never been devoid of the 'Ibadat of fasting.

Why fasting was made obligatory?

Please ponder as to what importance is there in fasting for Allah made it obligatory in each and every period:

1.Aim of life-servitude of God

I have already explained to you several times that the real aim of Islam is to make the whole life of man transformed into 'Ibadat of Allah. Man is born as slave, and slavery, i.e. servitude is ingrained in his very nature. Therefore, he must not be fear for a single moment from 'Ibadat, i.e. servitude to Allah, in thought and deed. He must check up at every move in the affairs of his life as to which step he ought to take so as to earn the pleasure of God and which one will entail His displeasure and wrath. The principle, therefore, is that the path leading to Allah's pleasure must be followed and that leading His displeasure must be eschewed just as embers of fire are avoided. A man must adopt the course approved by Allah and keep away from that disapproved by Him. When his whole life is suffused with this colour then only can he be considered as having discharged his obligation of servitude to his Master and as having fulfilled the purport of " I created the Jinn and Humankind only that they might worship me". (Al-Qur'an 51:56)

2.'Ibadat'-----training of servitude

I have stated this point before that the real purpose of the religious duties like Salah, Shari’ahs, fasting and Zakat having been made obligatory for us, is to train us for a big 'Ibadat. The fact of these acts being obligatory does not mean that you have acquitted yourself of what you owe to Allah if you have done Ruku' and Sajdah five times in a day, have suffered hunger and thirst from dawn to dusk for thirty days in Ramadan and, in case you are wealthy, have given Zakat every year and have performed Shari’ahs once in a lifetime, and that having done all this, are now released from His servitude to be free to do what you like. In fact, the underlying purpose of making these religious duties obligatory is to train a person in such a manner as to enable him to transform his whole life into a regular 'Ibadat of God. Now let us see, with this aim in view as to how fasting prepares a man for this full-time 'Ibadat.

3.Fasting is a hidden 'Ibadat

All religious duties except fasting are performed by some outward movement or the other. For instance, in Salah a man stands, sits, and does Ruku' and Sajdah which is visible to everybody; in Shari’ahs he goes on a long journey and travels with hundreds of thousands of people. Zakat is also given by one person and received by another person. All these religious works cannot be concealed. If you perform them, other people come to know about it; if you do not perform apparently then also it becomes known to others. As against this, fasting is an 'Ibadat which is not manifest. All-Knowing Allah alone knows that His servant is observing fast. One might partake of Sehri before others and abstain from eating and drinking anything openly till the Iftar time but if he stealthily eats and drinks anything in between, then nobody except God can know about it. The whole world will be under the impression that he is observing fast while in reality he will not be fasting.

4.Fasting---Sign of Strength of 'Iman'

Keep this nature of fasting before you and ponder over the fact that how strong is the faith of the man, who keeps fast, in God being the Knower of the unseen. He actually observes fast; he does not stealthily eat or drink anything; even in the severest summer, when the throat dries due to extreme thirst, he does not drink a drop of water; even in the worst condition of hunger, when life seems drooping, he is not inclined to eat anything! See what firm conviction he has in the fact that no action of his can be concealed from Allah, though it may be concealed from the whole world! How his heart is full of fear of God that he undergoes a severe agony but simply out of fear of Him does not do anything which will result in breaking his fast! How profound is his belief in the reward and punishment of the Hereafter that for full one month he fasts for at least 360 hours and not for a moment does an iota of doubt enter his mind about life after death! Had he the slightest doubt about the future life, where reward and punishment will be meted out, he could have never completed his fast. When doubt arises, it is not possible for a man to stick to his resolve of not eating and drinking anything in obedience to God's commandment.

5.One month's continuous training

In this way, Allah puts to test a Muslim's faith for full one month in a year and to the extent a man emerges successful from this trial, his faith becomes firmer and firmer. This is as it were, both a trial as well as a training. When you deposit anything as a trust with somebody, you are as if testing his integrity. If he proves successful in his test and does not commit breach of trust, he develops greater strength to bear the burden of trusts and becomes more worthy of trust. Similarly, Allah puts your faith to severe test continuously for one month, twelve to fourteen hours a day, and when you emerge triumphant from this test, further ability develops in you to refrain from other sins due to fear of God. Therefore, realising that Allah is the Knower of the unseen, you should abstain from breaking His law even covertly, and, on every occasion, you should duly remember that day when everything will be exposed, and, without any consideration, you will be requitted good for good and evil for evil. This is the purport of the following verse:-

" O ye who believe ! Fasting is prescribed for you, just as it was prescribed for those before you, that ye may ward off evil."

(Al-Qur'an 2:183)

6. Long practice of obedience

There is another peculiarity of fasting. It makes one obey the injunctions of Shari'ah without break for a long period of time. The duration of Salah is not more than a few minutes at a time. The time for paying Zakat occurs only once in a year. In Shari’ahs, however, the time spent is long but its opportunity comes once during lifetime, and that too not for all. As against these, fasting is an exercise in following Shari'at-i-Muhammadi for full one month in a year, day and night. You have to get up for Sehri early before dawn, stop all eating and drinking precisely at the breaking of dawn, do such and such work and abstain from such and such work during the day, take Iftar in the evening exactly at the time of sunset, then have dinner and relax, then hurry up for Taravih. In this way, every year for full one month, from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn, a Muslim is kept continuously tied up with rules and regulations like a soldier in an army, and then he is released for eleven months so that the training he has received for one month may show its effects, and if any deficiency is found it may be made up in the training of the next year.

7. Favourable collective environment for training

It is not expedient in any manner to impart training of this type of each and every person separately. You see in the army also that every individual is not ordered to do parade separately. All have to rise simultaneously on the sound of the bugle and have to work together on hearing the bugle so that they may develop the habit of working unitedly as a team and along with it all may assist in the training of each other, i.e. whatever is wanting in one person's training may be made up by other and the deficiency in the second person may be removed by the third person. Similarly, the month of Ramadan was earmarked for fasting and all Muslims were ordered that all of them should fast together. This order has turned individual 'Ibadat into collective 'Ibadat. Just as number one when multiplied by a lakh becomes a formidable number of one lakh, in the same way the moral and spiritual benefits accruing from fasting by one person are increased a million fold if millions of people fast together. The month of Ramadan fills the whole atmosphere with the spirit of piety and virtuousness. In the whole nation, the farming of piety flourishes. Every person not only tries to avoid sins but, if he has any difficulty, his many others brothers who are fasting like him come out to help him. Every person feels ashamed to commit a sin while he is fasting, and the desire automatically arises in everybody's heart to do some good work, to feed a destitute, to clothe a naked man, help one in distress, to take part in some good work being done anywhere and prevent evil if it is being indulged in openly at some place. A general environment of goodness and piety is created and the season starts for the flourishing of beneficial activities just as you see that every crop grows luxuriantly at the peak of its season and is found covering the fields all over. For this reason Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) said that :

" Every deed of man gets some increment or other from God. One good deed flourishes ten times to seven hundred times. But Allah says : fasting is exempt from this. It is exclusively for Me and I give reward for it as much as I want".

From this Hadith we come to know that all deeds flourish both in proportion to the motive of the doer of the good deed as well as its results, but there is a limit to their development. In the case of fasting, however, progress is unbounded. Ramadan is a season for the flourishing of goodness and piety, and in this season not one but lakhs and crores of persons jointly water this garden of virtue, the compass can expand immeasurably. The more you perform well-motivated deeds in this month, the greater will you avail yourselves of its blessings, and radiate their benefits to your other brothers; and if you maintain the effects of this month at a high pitch during the subsequent eleven months, to that extent this garden will flourish, and thus developing process will go on infinitely. It will be your own fault if you circumscribe it by your own lack of action.