RAMADAN
(3)
Fasting
is the third pillar of Islam after the shahādah (bearing witness that
there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger) and the five daily
prayers. Other pillars of Islam are zakāh and ḥajj. Zakāh is an
annual tax of 2.5 % of one’s net savings as a purifying sum to be distributed
among the poor in the community. Ḥajj
is the pilgrimage to the Ka‘bah in Mecca, once in a lifetime, to those who are
healthy and have the means to do so.
The
prescription of fasting was revealed by Allah to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
in the second year of Hijrah (migration of the Prophet and his followers from
Mecca to Madinah in 622 to avoid the persecution of the Meccan infidels). The
Qur’ān, the very words of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
says:
يَا
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى
الَّذِينَ
مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ (البقرة: ۱٨٣)
“O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to
you as it was prescribed to those before
you,
that ye may (learn) self-restraint.”
(Q. 2:183)
As
the Muslim calendar is based on lunar calendar, Ramadan can be in any season of
the year. As Ramadan this year (2013 here in Canberra) is in winter, the Muslim
community of this area is fasting about 12 hours, the shortest time of fasting.
But in summer they fast between 16 and 17 hours, the longest time of fasting.
At the same time, Muslims living in the northern hemisphere like Edmonton in
Canada they fast between 18 and 19 hours. They usually do not have their pre-dawn
meal (suḥūr) anymore, because they are still full. It is recommended,
however, to take this predawn-meal, even a piece of cake or a glass of water,
as you cannot have two big meals within four or five hours, so that fasting
will not be too hard for them. The
Prophet said: "Have your pre-dawn meal for it is blessing."
It
is Allah’s blessings and wisdom to make the lunar calendar for Ramadan, so that
wherever you live, either in northern or southern hemisphere, you will have
long or short time in fasting in Ramadan. To healthy people
fasting is far from being dangerous. Man can survive without food for several
weeks. Without water in normal condition he can survive not more than 70 or 80
hours, i.e., about 3 days. However, it was reported that a baby survived
miraculously after being trapped in a collapsed building for one week in Mexico
City when this city was being devastated by earthquake in 1985. We have
witnessed similar conditions where some people survived miraculously after
being trapped under the rubble after earthquake or the collapse of buildings.
Abstaining from water in 18 or 19 hours
is only one-fourth of the length of time that can cause death from starvation.
Allah says in the Qur’ān:
لَا
يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا
(البقرة: ۲٨٦
“On
no soul doth Allah placed a burden
greater than it can
bear”
(Q. 2:286).
Very old people, pregnant women and the sick
are exempt from fasting. Old people have
to pay a sum of money or food to feed the poor. Pregnant women and sick people
fast respectively after delivery and recovery.
This is also an indication that Muslims near the
North Pole, such us the town of Northpole in Alaska, can fast from dawn to
sunset in 20 hours or more, if they
insist to do so. The temperature is always cool and they do not feel thirsty
because they do not sweat.
In
the town of Northpole we can see the “house” (office) of Santa Claus (St.
Nicolas) who distributes presents and receives letters from Christian children
from all over the world in Christmas season. This tradition is being followed from the
real Santa Claus who lived long time ago, in the 3rd century in the present
Turkey.
The Significance of
Fasting
Beside
spiritual advantage such as patience, self-restraint, sympathy with the poor
and sincere and deep love for Allah, fasting has also its physical advantages.
It has a healing power. The fact that hunger is the best cure to many ailments
has been proved and defended by many medical authorities. The historian
Herodotus described the early Egyptian who fasted three days a month as
extremely healthy people. The Arab and Muslim physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
prescribed fasting for all ailments. The Nobel Prize winner Dr. Alexis Carrel
described important hidden phenomena in fasting when he said:
The sugar of the liver and the fat
of the subcutaneous deposits are
mobilized,
and also the proteins of the muscles and
the glands.
All the organs sacrifice their own
substances in
order to maintain blood, heart and brain
in
a normal condition. Fasting purifies and
profoundly modifies our tissues.
Al-Ghazālī says
that hunger produces the following beneficial results: (a) Purification of the
soul and illumination of the mind; (b) the capacity to employ spiritual
pleasures; (c) humility (d) remembrance of the poor; (e) freedom from all
sinful desires; (f) resistance to the temptation to sleep, and a stimulus to
vigils; (g) the affording opportunity for the ritual of worship; (h) gaining
physical health; (i) the reduction of expenses; and (j) provision of means to
feed the poor.
There
are three levels of fasting:
1.
The fasting of the ‘awām, the common people: abstaining from food and
sexual passion.
2.
The fasting of the khawāṣ, the elect: abstaining from seeing, hearing,
speaking, and committing sin with hands, legs and the rest of the limbs.
3.
The fasting of the khawāṣ al-khawāṣ., the elect of the elect: abstaining from bad intention and from
thinking of worldly things.
In
the animal world animals use nature's way to heal theirselves. When they are
ill, they find a quiet place where they rest and stop eating. Even domesticated
animals such as cats and dogs and even "dumb" cows are smart enough
to stop eating when they are ill. By fasting the animal creates within its body
a biochemical state which helps it to quick recovery. But man acts on the
opposite direction of the animal law when he is ill. Man and only man who
persists and insists in eating when he is ill, although his body rejects food,
when sweets taste bitter, and even when he has no appetite.
An article in the Health magazine
stated that if the average person were to fast one day out of every week for
the whole year "he would be no older in body at the year's end than in the
beginning." In other words, although his chronological age continues, his
physical age stops with fasting. This is very good news for us Muslims. If we
fast every Monday or every Thursday, or every Monday and Thursday of the week
as recommended by our religion, we shall not only get reward from Allah, but
also slow the process of our aging.
An
article in the Health magazine stated that if the average person were to fast
one day out of every week for the whole year "he would be no older in body
at the year's end than in the beginning." In other words, although his
chronological age continues, his physical age stops with fasting. This is very
good news for us Muslims. If we fast every Monday or every Thursday, or every
Monday and Thursday of the week as recommended by our religion, we shall not
only get reward from Allah, but also slow the process of our aging.
Prof. C.M. Child of the University of
Chicago reveals in his over twenty-five years of research on aging in animals
that periodic fasting is generally conductive to rejuvenation. He found that in
certain species of insects, insects with abundant food live in three to four
weeks. But if the food is greatly reduced or the insects are forced to fast,
they may continue to be active and young for at least three years. This
statement reminds us of the swarm of locusts that suddenly appeared and
multiplied in millions and devastating crops in Africa and Asia, but suddenly
disappeared. Why? Being overfed, they killed themselves by eating too much.
However, some were not overfed, and therefore, were not completely destroyed,
and had chance to survive longer and to breed and to threaten us again in the
future. Overeating is dangerous, but fasting could maintain your health. Let us
learn from nature. Nature is a book, and
to read it nobody is illiterate.
The
animal's minimum life span is said to be five times the period required for it
to mature. For example, the chicken matures at the age of six months, easily
lives to be two and a half years old; the dog matures at the age of one, easily
lives to be five; the calf matures at two, easily lives to be twelve; the horse
matures at four, easily lives to be twenty. Man matures at the age of twenty,
and is supposed to be able to live easily to be one hundred years old, but,
alas, at the age of sixty he has already become semi-invalid. There must be
something wrong with our eating behaviour, such as eating even if we are not
hungry, do not stop eating until we are full, etc. Even if we consider man’s
mature at the age of 17, he is still supposed to be able to live easily at the
age of 5x17= 85. Yet, most people cannot reach that age. The world average life
span of man is 67.88, for male is 65.71, and for female is 70.14. According to statistics
from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2011, women on average live longer
than men in all countries, with the exception of Tuvalu (65-64), Tonga (73-70),
Kuwait (80-80), and Qatar (83-81). The maximum average life expectancy in
developed countries is between 80 and 83. For females’ average life expectancy
in these countries is between 80 and 85, except in Japan where we have the
highest average life expectancy in females is 86. In Australia, Italy, and Singapore,
the average life expectancy is 82 (80 for men - 85 for women).
Women
live longer statistically, probably because their natural hormones, the
oestrogens, seem to protect them from the most common form of heart disease.
Their response to stress chemically and behaviourally is different from that of
men. Moreover, when a woman became
pregnant, she has to defend and support the foetus, not to reject or destroy
it. In the meantime she has to defend herself against infection. Therefore, she
must have inherited an extremely sophisticated immune system more than man. But
this advantage for women could turn into disadvantage. This sophisticated
immune system sometimes becomes over-efficient or over-active and attacks the
body it is supposed to protect. Therefore, women suffer from certain auto
immune disease more than men do.
Fasting is the key to health. It
purifies every cell in our body. Fourteen centuries ago our beloved Prophet
Muhammad s.a.w. had said: صُوْمُوْا تَصِحُّوا
"Fast, so that you will be healthy."
A man came to the Prophet s.a.w. asking him,
يَا رَسُولَ اللهِ، أَيُّ النَّاسِ خَيْرٌ؟
قَالَ: " مَنْ طَالَ عُمُرُهُ، وَحَسُنَ عَمَلُهُ "، قَالَ: فَأَيُّ النَّاسِ
شَرٌّ؟ قَالَ: " مَنْ طَالَ عُمُرُهُ، وَسَاءَ عَمَلُهُ " (رواه أحمد و
أبو داؤد و الترمذي و البيهقي)
“O Messenger
of Allah, who is the best person?” the
Prophet answered: “He who lives long and does
good things.”
He asked (again): “Then who is the worst
person?”. He
answered:
“He who lives long and does bad things.”
(Reported by
Ahmad, Abū Dū’ūd, Tirmidhī, and Bayhaqī)
May Allah bless us with long lives and
do good things. (CIVIC, 19.07.13)
Bibliography:
Al-Maktabah
al-Shāmilah
Khuṭab I
(List
by the World Health Organization (2011)
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