Fasting

Fasting The Arabic term for fasting is sawm. In essence, it is the same as tabattul ilallah i.e. detaching oneself from the world and devoting one’s life entirely to God (Quran, 73:8). Fasting, along with most of the other rites of worship, was prescribed on a regular basis after the Prophet’s emigration to Madinah (2 a.h.), but it had been practiced even before Islam in one form or the other. According to Aishah, the Prophet’s wife, the Quraysh used to fast on the day of Ashura, in their days of Ignorance (before Islam) and the Prophet would also fast on that day (Sahih Muslim). So one might say that fasting marks the entrance to an Islamic life, if the Prophet’s stay in the cave of Hira, before his receiving prophethood, is taken into account. When God decided to give His scriptures to Moses, He asked him to go to Mount Tur where, remaining apart from his people, he was to spend forty days in fasting and abstinence. Moses did so for forty days continuously. Only then did God speak to him. This is mentioned in verse 143 of Chapter 7 of the Quran. Before commencing his prophetic mission, the Prophet Jesus had fasted for forty days in the desert. Only then was the word of God revealed to him. This is recorded in the Bible as the Sermon on the Mount (Jewish Encyclopaedia). Likewise, the Final Prophet used to go to the cave of Hira before receiving his prophethood. There he would fast in seclusion, engrossed in a world of worship and contemplation. Only after a long period of this inner purification did the time come for him to be visited by an angel, so that he might receive the word of God. In the Islamic shari‘ah, fasting is known as sawm, a word which means to abstain. Literally, it means to abstain from meeting people, speaking, eating and drinking. A horse that has been detained at a stable and denied fodder is called al-Khail as-Saim, in Arabic. That is why the Prophet called the month of Ramadan a month of patience. Harith ibn Malik, describing one of his fasts to the Prophet, said, “I withdrew from the world and was thirsty all day.”