Friday Focus | Fasting: divinely ordained self-restraint

Fasting isdivinely ordained practice down the ages, it is prescribed for Muslims, as itwas prescribed for pre-Islamic Ummah. The ardent practice is fundamentally meantfor imbibing the spirit of self-restraint.

”O ye whobelieve! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you,that ye may (learn) self-restraint” (2:183)

   

Self-restraintor call it self-control is a pre-requisite both for steadfastness andfortitude. Put differently, it could mean in case of conflict between physicaldrives and lofty human values, one should eschew physical drives and abide byvalues. Furthermore, it is meant to condition a person to hard and laboriouslife, instead of getting conditioned to ease and laze.

It was withthe idea of imbibing self-restraint that fasting was prescribed for pre-IslamicUmmahs, as it was prescribed for Muslim. There might have been though adifferent regimen, with a different set of do’s and don’ts down the ages, forpre-Islamic Ummahs.   On who has to take the spiritual exercise andwho may not is based on a set of conditions, wherein an exemption is grantedfor specially circumstanced, as ordained in the Holy Verse following the onenoted above:

” (Fasting)for a fixed number of days, but if anyone of you is ill or on a journey, theprescribed number (should be made up) from days later. For those who can do it(with hardship), is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent. But he thatwill give more, of his own free will, it is better for him. And it is betterfor you that ye fast, if only you know” (2:184).

Those whocan do it with hardship include aged people or specially circumstanced. Theyare however obliged to feed one in need. Some jurists believe that speciallycircumstanced include women who are expecting or the ones nursing a baby,however some opine that they need to make it up later.  Those who might beill or travelling need to make up the days they didn’t fast, later.

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