Fasting is key faith pillar, offers protection for Muslim believers

Ushiriki Wema parton Tessie Musalia serve Upperhill Secondary School Muslim students with Iftar after breaking their fast in school on March 24, 2024. [Courtesy]

If food intake is not moderated, it opens a door to a myriad of physical and spiritual problems. A full stomach causes laziness, distorts thinking, brings sleep and impedes worship.

Fasting in Ramadhan is a pillar of Islam and therefore obligated for every Muslim who is able to do so. However, this does not necessarily mean that fasting in Islam is limited to Ramadhan. It is in fact strongly recommended as a voluntary worship generally.

According to Islamic tradition, the primary purpose for fasting is to draw nearer to Allah. Concepts such as the remembrance of Allah, sacrifice, charity, humility, faith and sincerity are some of the spiritual virtues that find special focus through this expression.

Embedded in many of these is the teaching emphasising the benefit of fasting as a protection for believers. In a hadith narrated by Abu Huraira and reported by Al Bukhari in his Sahih collection, the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, "fasting is a shield (or a screen or a shelter). So the person observing fasting should avoid sexual relation with his wife and should not behave foolishly and impudently, and if somebody fights with him or abuses him, he should tell him twice, 'I am fasting.'

In another hadith reported by Imam Ahmad from Jabir, the Messenger (SAW) is reported to have said, "O Ka'b 'Ujrah (referring to Jabir), fasting is a strong shield, sadaqa erases sins as water extinguishes fire, and prayer is something to draw you near to Allah."

It leaves no doubt from the Prophet's teachings that protection is to be derived from fasting. So one may ask, what is this shield that fasting provides? How is it a protection?

Abstaining from food, drink and sexual intercourse from dawn to dusk constitutes the outward duties of fasting. The inner duties include keeping the senses (i.e. sight, tongue, hearing, hands, feet) free from sin. This encompasses abstinence from telling lies, backbiting, obscenity, casting of lustful glances, hypocrisy, unlawful transactions, pursuing wickedness and so on.

While food and drink are essential for the survival of human being, if their intake is not moderated, it opens a door to a myriad of physical and spiritual problems. This perhaps received a more direct indication from yet another hadith of the Prophet (SAW) saying, "No man fills a container worse than his stomach."

Pious predecessors, Islamic scholars and religious teachers have expounded from these teachings many things.

The great Muslim Scholar Imam Al Ghazzali for example wrote in his masterpiece Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences) that 'the stomach is the fount of lust and the source of ailment and evil in that its cravings are followed by the craving of sex.'

A filled stomach causes laziness, distorts someone's ideas, brings sleep, impedes one from conducting worship and triggers sexual desires among other things.

A local religious teacher explains the protective quality of fasting in the context of yet another hadith where the Messenger (SAW) advised the youth to fast in order to resist the desire for sex.

"In the Muslim community, this hadith is often recited during marriage ceremonies or in lectures on the topic of marriage especially where young people are involved. The prophet advised youth who cannot marry for one reason or the other to fast instead. That this is the means to support their abstinence from unlawful sexual escapades," said Ustadh Juba Rashid.

"It is from eating that the human body receives nourishment and the energy that produces a desire for sexual engagements," he added.

Unlawful sex is denounced in Islam as one of the major sins. Sinfulness leads one to the punishment of the Almighty. On the other hand, modern medical knowledge and practices such as dieting warn against bad eating habits and recommend moderation. Fasting offers protection on this front.

Meanwhile telling lies, backbiting, obscenity, hypocrisy, unlawful transactions and pursuing wickedness are all sinful behaviours and actions that only attract the wrath of Allah and lead to the punishment of the hellfire. Yet sincere and purposeful fasting is meant to shield someone from committing these sins as well.

In other words, a lifestyle characterised by fasting for the sake of the Almighty is a guaranteed protection from many ills in the material world and the Hereafter.