Fasting in Islam – Its Basic Objective
In Surah al-Baqarah* of the Qur’an Allah Most High addressed those
who believe in that scripture as Divine revelation and informed them of the
promulgation of the compulsory fast for them. The verse then disclosed that
fasting was made compulsory for all those religious communities which preceded
the community of Muslims who follow Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam).
“O you who have attained to faith! Fasting is
ordained for you as it was ordained for those before you, so that you might
remain conscious of Allah.”
(Quran, al-Baqara, 2:183)
Thus the compulsory fast is found in
the religious life of Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhist and others**. The
verse then ended by indicating that the objective for which the compulsory fast
was promulgated is the acquisition of piety and godliness (Taqwa).
[*It is interesting to observe that after the opening chapter
of the Holy Qur’an, which is itself named ‘Opening Chapter’, the next chapter
is entitled the Chapter of the ‘Cow’. While the choice of this name is linked
to the worship of the cow in Jewish history which is found in the chapter (Qur’an, al-Baqarah,2:67-71), it also has great significance for Hindus who consider the
cow to be a holy animal. Now the choice of the cow, which performs the wondrous
feat of eating grass and producing milk, as a holy animal, can be considered to
have been a preliminary step in the evolution of the religious copiousness,
leading eventually to the recognition of all animals as sacred.
Similarly the choice of the Ganges as a holy river and Bharat as a holy land
would lead eventually to the recognition of everything in
this universe as holy and sacred. And this is a position which can only truly
be sustained with the recognition of the world as real and as Allah’s creation.
Secondly, the world and all it contains must be recognized to be functioning as
a medium which leads the developed religious consciousness to Allah Most High.
And this, of course, is the position of Islam itself which embraces a spiritual
interpretation of the universe, a universe which overflows with the ‘Signs of
Allah’ (the Ayah
Allah). And the Signs of Allah Most High
lead directly to Allah Himself.
** David is mentioned in the Bible as having fasted for
seven days (Samuel
12:16-17). Moses fasted in order to show
gratitude to Allah for the deliverance of the Israelites from Pharaoh and also
for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus
16:29). Jesus Christ not only kept fasts but
also commanded his followers to fast (Mathew 6:15-17, Luke 5:33-35, Acts 13:23). May Allah’s blessings be upon them all.]
The Qur’anic viewpoint therefore, is
that fasting has always been an obligatory feature of the religious way of
life. By instituting the compulsory fast for the religious community which
followed Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him),
the Qur’an simply brought religious life amongst Muslims into a state of
conformity with an essential requirement of the religious way of life.
When the Qur’an went on to point out
that the basic objective of fasting was the acquisition of piety and holiness (Taqwa), it followed that this must also have
been the basic objective of fasting in all previous religious communities established
by the thousands of Prophets and guides sent by Allah Most High to every nation
and tribe (Qur’an, al-Ra’d,
13:7).
An immediate implication of this
conclusion is that no religion (which claims to be founded on the One Truth)
can or should condone the exploitation of the institution of fasting as a
political weapon or a form of protest. And yet, in 1986, the Foreign Minister
of Nicaragua, who was a Catholic priest, completed three weeks of a
fast-unto-death in a protest against the policies of the government of the
United States of America towards the Sandanista government in Nicaragua. In
much the same way the Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi, who was a devout Hindu
and a role-model of modern reform Hinduism, used fasting as a political weapon
in his struggle against British rule in India.
Piety and godliness, therefore, is the
criterion with which we judge the institution of fasting as it functions, not
only in the religious community established by Nabi Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), but in all other
religions and religious communities.
It is only when fasting inculcates
piety and godliness that it functions in accordance with its original purpose.
When it does not or, rather, no longer does, then a deviation has occurred. And
it behoves the followers of the deviant religion to struggle to retrieve the
original objective of fasting.
While the majority of Muslims, the
world over, observe the compulsory fast of Ramadhan, we
find in this age the unique phenomenon of large numbers of Muslims who do not
fast. When we inquire into this phenomenon what we find is that it has emerged
almost exclusively as a result of a considerable impact of modern Western
civilization on such Muslims.
This is not surprising since modern
Western civilization, which is largely constructed on secular and materialistic
foundations, does not attach much practical value to piety and God-consciousness.
As a consequence one comes across people who find it inconvenient to fast
because it interferes with the efficient fulfilment of their professional
obligations. Indeed a former President of Tunisia attempted to prohibit the compulsory
Islamic fast because he claimed that it had a negative impact on productivity
and thus constituted an obstacle to economic growth and prosperity. Others who
have imprisoned themselves in the comforts and luxuries of modern sensate
culture (which is a feature of Western rather than Christian civilization) find
fasting to be either too rigorous or just plain inconvenient. While we shall be
attempting a rational exposition of the benefits to be derived from fasting, we
should also urge such Muslims to take serious note of the fact that fasting was
made compulsory by Allah Most High Himself.
Any Muslim who challenges the
compulsory fast and holds the view that he is under no obligation to fast would
be in a state of defiance and rebellion against Allah; and since Islam connotes
submission to the Will of Allah Most High, it
should be obvious that such a person would not be in Islam, in the true sense
of the word, and hence would not be a Muslim.
Indeed, such a Muslim places himself
outside the religious way of life altogether since the Qur’an declares:
“And whosoever desires a religion
other than Islam, never will it be accepted from him, and in the life to come
he shall be among the lost.”
(Qur’an, aal-’Imran, 3:85)
On the other hand, the Muslim who
recognizes the obligatory nature of fasting and yet does not observe the compulsory
fast because of laziness, inconvenience, or whatever reason is, in fact,
committing a sin and must expect to be punished by Allah Most High for it.
Similarly, since fasting was made compulsory for those religious communities which
preceded the advent of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu
‘alaihi wa sallam), and since the previous
divinely-revealed laws of fasting were cancelled and abrogated and then
replaced in the Qur’an with the Fast of Ramadhan:
“Any message which, We annul or consign to
oblivion We replace with a better or a similar one. Dost thou not know that
Allah has the power to will anything?”
(Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:106)
To Be Continued ....
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