Matters Relating to Fasting

Question 01: Can not the fasting of Ramadhan be regarded as a kind of starving, self-torment and physical infliction when Muslims deprive themselves from food and drink for many hours every day and for a duration of a month? Why do not they fast as others (Jews and Christians) do?
Answer 01: Fasting in Islam–like every other ritual–invokes admiration of this religion and of its educational method in life.Islam is not a religion based on the satisfaction of emotions or benumbing of feelings. Also, it is not a religion which follows the inclinations of people or pleads them to meet around it like foam.It is a heavenly religion which came to build up the good man who qualifies for becoming of God’s vicegerent on earth, multiply in number, and establish both truth and justice. Great tasks like these require strong will and patience on the burden of life and its oddities.Nothing like fasting could sharpen the will. When a man feels hungry, out of his/her own will, at a time when nothing could prevent him/her from food; when man chooses to abstain from food and drink until a specific time, his/her will becomes subordinate to the mind and thought. As such a Muslim becomes able to abstain from things on the occasion of abstaining and moves forward in the location of action, and does and leave what he/she thinks right after thinking and contemplation, away from emotions and quick excitement, and respond to ideas and various obsessions. Fasting is also a kind of education of the rich and the well-to-do to taste the meaning of need and the sting of hunger which the poor always suffer from. When those feel as the others do, cooperation, solidarity and mercy prevail among the individuals of all society, but when fasting is merely superficial, as the followers of some other religions do, this does not go with the comprehensiveness of Islam and its distinction.This religion is characterized by its own rules and distinction of thoughts from other creeds so that what is good is known to be different from the bad. Scum always goes in vain, and what avails the people stays in the land.


Question 02: Islam is a religion of ease. What did God in his Almighty enjoins such a difficult task as fasting on the Muslim, especially those who live in hot areas?
Answer 02: There is no hardship in Islam and God does not charge man to do more than he/she could. Any obligation in Islam that is too difficult for man and may cause him too much difficulty will not continue to be an obligation. On the one hand, anyone who cannot fast may not do so provided that he/she compensate for not fasting by feeding a needy person for each day he/she did not fast. On the other hand, Islam is a heavenly religion with a great heavenly message which intends to build a nation, establish a civilization, and take care of society by defending its rights, and achieving a great role on the international level. Such a religion should in the first place prepare its followers to endure difficulties and hardships so that they could be qualified to build nations and develop civilizations. May God bless the soul of that who said: “If the souls are great the bodies will be tired because of their will.”

Desiring comfort and living in slackness, dullness and laziness are the qualities of one who is impatient, the kind of people who are not expected to be good to themselves or to others. Has ever a nation risen in history and was important while it was sitting dull, neither struggling nor getting tired or exhausted? Could such people know the taste of real comfort, unless they were exhausted because of work?Could people feel the pleasure of recovery without knowing the meaning of disease? Could people know the taste of freedom without suffering the agony of suppression?

By contemplating these great meanings, we realize that the obligation of fasting is a heavenly educational one and the difficulty in it may be intentional and deliberate, otherwise it would not achieve the desired aim in the formation of the nation and its preparation for grand tasks.


Question 03: How could a Muslim fast while living in a country where the sun does not set most of the hours of the day, as in the Scandinavian countries for instance?
Answer 03: Fasting is a kind of worship. It is a way of getting accustomed to patience and developing a serious will; and a Muslim has to be as strong as possible in terms of religion, will and body.The Muslims of such cold countries as the Scandinavian, where the sun does not set most of the hours of the day, should fast and be patient until the sun sets even though the day is much longer than the night. If someone, due to a certain defect or illness, feels unable to endure fasting for such a long time, he/she can choose not to fast but must make up for that when he/she becomes able to do so. Otherwise, if there is no possibility that the Muslim would be able to fast, then he has to compensate in terms of feeding a needy Muslim by providing him/her with average food, which he often offers to his family, for lunch or dinner for everyday he did not fast.