Fasting
When they distance themselves from Satan's tricks and traps, when they repel him and reject his aim, when they frustrate Satan's evil suspicions—how fasting becomes good for his friends…
The source text under review treats fasting not merely as a physical state of hunger, but as a comprehensive training system that builds a person's self-control mechanism. Fasting is defined as one quarter of faith and is directly linked to "patience." The core argument is that the stomach is the center of all sins and heart-corrupting elements; by bringing the stomach under control, Satan's influence over a person will be broken and the heart can become a mirror for divine truths. Because fasting, unlike other acts of worship, has a "hidden" character and its recompense will be determined directly by Allah, it carries the quality of a "divine blank check."
1. Fasting Camp Against Weaknesses: For individuals struggling with specific sins or weaknesses (lying, arrogance, lust toward women, ambition for status), not only obligatory fasts but regular voluntary fasts (Monday–Thursday) are recommended as a "training camp."
2. Simplifying Iftar Tables: For fasting to reach its purpose, iftar tables should be kept at a minimum level that will not "break the fasting state" (e.g., a few olives, one bowl of soup, one slice of bread).
3. Exit from the Body's Prison: Bodily needs should be consciously restricted as a method for the soul to escape worldly and bodily limits and become "spiritualized."
4. Responsibility and Change: The change of a society or individual depends on the will to restrain inner desires (passions). The verse "Allah will not change a people until they change themselves" is linked to fasting in this context.
5. Expectation of Unmeasured Reward: In the Hereafter simulation where accounts run against one, it should not be forgotten that a sincerely observed fast that "does not enter the reckoning" can be a surprise that shifts the entire balance.
Key concepts
- Stomach and Sins
- The stomach is described as the "mother womb" of sins. The most evil vessel a person fills is the stomach, for all wickedness takes shape there.
- Satan's Tracks
- The instrument Satan uses to reach a person's heart is "hidden passions." These passions are like tracks on the road to the heart along which Satan moves. Fasting (hunger) narrows these paths and limits Satan's range of movement by "pouring gravel" upon them.
- Capital Metaphor
- The heart is the capital of the body. When a nation's capital falls, the nation falls. Protecting and correcting the heart depends directly on the stomach (nourishment and control of desires).
- Concealment (Being Hidden)
- Fasting is not an "action" but a state of "abandoning" and "restraining." Unlike prayer or zakat, it cannot be observed from outside; therefore it is the act of worship farthest from ostentation (*riyā*).
- Blank-Check Quality
- Whereas the reward of other acts of worship is limited to set measures (between ten and seven hundredfold), Allah said of fasting: "Its reward is Mine; I shall give it to My servant." This shows that in the Hereafter fasting can be an immeasurable surprise that overturns the accounts.
- Junnah
- Shield, protective armor. In ḥadīths it expresses fasting's protective quality against sins and the fire of Hell.
- Mā ṣivā Allāh
- Everything other than Allah. Servitude is defined as a person's breaking away from mā ṣivā Allāh and turning wholly to Allah.
- Rayyān
- Paradise's special gate reserved exclusively for those who fast.
- ʿUbūdiyya
- Servitude. A person's consciousness of being created and the permanent connection he establishes with Allah.
- Ḥayawān Nāṭiq
- In logic, the definition of the human being: "speaking/thinking living being." Cited in the text as humanity's most fundamental attribute.
- Tajarrud
- Detachment, stripping away. The soul's purification by withdrawing from bodily needs and material bonds.
- Asrār al-Ṣawm
- The secrets and deep meanings of fasting.
- Mustakīn
- The hidden paths of passion where Satan lays ambush or finds a way into the heart.
- Rubʿ al-ʿIbādāt
- The first quarter of Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, meaning the "Section on Acts of Worship."