Hello Mambuna, May Allah reward you for your great efforts in broaden our knowledge in Islam.We really appreciate it.Well I got few questions for you in terms of Fasting in relations to certain obligation beyond our control.First what does Allah says when travelling for a day or more,second when you assigned a task when involves alot of physical body movement or out somewhere example out at sea for training.Whereby you will be on a ship not on land .What are the possible solutions or what does the Quran say on such situations.Thanks for your cooperation. Sariang. >From: "Mambuna O. Bojang" <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: FWD: MEANING AND BLESSING OF FASTING >Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 13:06:50 -0500 > >Ramadan greetings to everyone in advance. May Allah (SWT) make it easy >for all of us, and may He accept our fasting and forgive us for our sins >(ameen). Below is a pretty lenghty reading, but I think it will surely >worth your time. > >God Bless! >Pa Mambuna > > > >PROPHET SAYS: Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Allah the >Almighty has said: O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of >Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O >son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you >then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were >you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you >then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you >forgiveness nearly as great as it." (Tirmidhi) > > >MEANING AND BLESSING OF FASTING > > >The second act of worship that Allah enjoins upon Muslims is Sawm or >fasting. It means abstaining from dawn to sunset from eating, >drinking and sex. Like Prayer, this act of worship has been part of the >teachings of all the Messengers. Their followers fasted as we do. >However, the rules, the number of days, and the periods prescribed for >Fasting have varied >from one Shariah (the revealed, or canonical, law of Islam) to another. >Today, although Fasting remains a part of most religions in some form >or other, people have often changed its original form by accretions of >their own. > >O Believers! Fasting is ordained for you, even as it was ordained for >those before you." (The Qur'an 2:183). Why has this particular act of >worship been practiced in all eras? > >Life Of Worship > >Islam aims to transform the whole life of man into a life of worship. He >is born a slave; and to serve his Creator is his very nature. Not for a >single moment should he live without worshipping, that is surrendering >to Him in thoughts and deeds. He must remain conscious of what he ought >to do to earn the pleasure of Allah (SWT) and what he ought to avoid. He >should then walk on the path leading to Allah's pleasure, eschew that >leading to His displeasure just as he would avoid the embers of a fire. > >Only when our entire lives have become modeled on this pattern can we be >considered to have worshipped our Master as is His due and as having >fulfilled the purport of "I have not created jinn and men except for My >lbadah (complete submission and obedience). > >Rituals Lead To Worship > >The real purpose of ritual acts of worship - Salah, Zakah, Sawm and Hajj >- is to help us to come to that life of total worship. Never think that >you can acquit yourselves of what you owe to Allah only if you bow and >prostrate yourselves five times a day, suffer hunger and thirst from >dawn to sunset for thirty days in Ramadan and, if wealthy, give alms and >perform the Pilgrimage once in a lifetime. Doing all this does not >release you from the bondage to Him, nor make you free to do whatever >you like. Rather, one of the underlying purposes of enjoining these >rituals upon you is to develop you so that you can transform your whole >lives into the lbadah of Allah. > >The Private Worship > >All acts of worship include some outward physical movement, but not >Fasting. In Prayer you stand, sit, bow down and prostrate yourselves; >all these acts are visible to everybody. In Hajj you undertake a long >journey and travel with thousands of people. Zakah, too, is known to at >least two persons, the giver and the receiver. None of these acts can >remain concealed; if you perform them, other people will come to know >about them. > >But Fasting is a form of lbadah which is entirely private. The >all-knowing Allah alone knows that His servant is Fasting. You are >required to take food before dawn (Suhur) and abstain from eating and >drinking anything till the time to break the Fast (Iftar). But, if you >secretly eat and drink in between, nobody except Allah will know about >it. > >Sure Sign Of Faith > >The private nature of Fasting ensures that you have strong faith in >Allah as the One who knows everything. Only if your faith is true and >strong, will you not dream of eating or drinking secretly: even in the >hottest summer, when your throats dry up with thirst, you will not drink >a drop of water; even when you feel faint with hunger, when life itself >seems to be ebbing, you will not eat anything. To do all this, see what >firm conviction you must have that nothing whatsoever can ever be >concealed from Allah! How strong must be His fear and love in your >hearts. You will keep your Fast for about 360 hours for one full month >only because of your profound belief in the reward and punishment of the >Hereafter. Had you the slightest doubt that you have to meet your Maker, >you would not complete such a Fast. With doubts in the hearts, no such >resolves can be fulfilled > >Month-long Training > >In this way does Allah put to the test a Muslim's faith for a full month >every year. To the extent you emerge successful from this >trial, your faith becomes firmer and deeper. The Fasting is both a trial >and a training. If you deposit anything on trust with somebody, you are, >as it were, testing his integrity. If he does not abuse your trust, he >not only passes his test, but at the same time, also develops greater >strength to bear the burden of greater trusts in the future. Similarly, >Allah puts your faith to a severe test continuously for one month, many >long hours a day. If you emerge triumphant from this test, more strength >develops in you to refrain from other sins. This is what the Qur'an >says: "O Believers! Fasting is ordained for you, even as it was ordained >to >those before you, that you might attain to Allah-consciousness." (The >Qur'an 2:183). > >Practicing Obedience > >The Fasting has another characteristic. It makes us obey the injunctions >of the Shariah with sustained intensity for prolonged periods of time. >Salah lasts only a few minutes at a time. Zakah is paid only once a >year. Although the time spent on Hajj is long, it may come only once in >a lifetime. In the school of Fasting, you are trained to obey the >Shariah of Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him), for one full month, >every year, day and night. You have to get up early before dawn for >Suhur, stop all eating and drinking precisely at a certain time, do >certain activities and abstain from certain activities during the day, >break your Fast (Iftar) in the evening at exactly a certain time. Then, >for a few moments only you relax, before you hurry for long late evening >prayers (Tarawih). > >Every year, for one full month from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn, >you, like a soldier in an army, continuously live a disciplined life.You >are then sent back to continue your normal duties for eleven months so >that the training you have received for one month may be reflected in >your conduct, and if any deficiency is found it may be made up the next >year. > >Communal Fasting > >Training of such profound nature cannot be imparted to each individual >separately. In just the way an army is trained, everyone has to act at >the same time at the sound of the bugle so that they may develop team >spirit, learn to act in unison, and assist each other in their task of >development. The month of Ramadan is earmarked for all Muslims to fast >together, to ensure similar >results. This measure turns individual Ibadah into collective lbadah. >Just as the number one, when multiplied by thousands, becomes a >formidable number, so the moral and spiritual benefits accruing from the >Fasting by one person alone are increased a millionfold if a million >people fast together. > >The month of Ramadan suffuses the whole environment with a spirit of >righteousness, virtue and piety. As flowers blossom in spring, so does >Taqwa (fear and love of Allah) in Ramadan. Everyone tries extra hard to >avoid sin and, if they lapse, they know they can count on the help of >many brothers and sisters who are Fasting with them. The desire >automatically arises in every heart to do good works, to feed the poor, >to clothe the naked, to help those in distress, to participate in any >good work being done anywhere, and to prevent evil. > >For this reason the Messenger (pbuh) said: "Every good deed of a man is >granted manifold increase, ten to seven hundred times. But says Allah: >'Fasting is an exception; it is exclusively for Me, and I reward for it >as much as I wish.' " (Bukhari, Muslim). All good deeds >grow, then, in proportion to both the intention of the doer as well as >their results, but that there is a limit to their growth. Fasting, >however, has no such limit. In Ramadan, in the season for the >flourishing of good and piety, not one but millions of people jointly >water this garden of virtue. The more you sincerely perform good deeds >in this >month and the greater you avail yourselves of its blessings, the more >you sustain the impact of fasting on your life during the subsequent >eleven months, the more will our garden flourish, and flourish without >limit. Should its growth become inhibited, the fault must lie with you. > >Where Are The Results? > >After snapping the vital links between various parts of Islam and >injecting into it many new things, we cannot expect the same results as >from the whole. A second reason is that we have practically changed the >meaning of lbadah. Many of us believe that mere abstention from food and >drink, from morning till evening, amounts to lbadah; once you do all >these things you have worshipped Allah. A greater majority of the >Muslims is unmindful of the real spirit of Ibadah which should permeate >all our actions. That is why the acts of Ibadah do not produce their >full benefit. For everything in Islam depends on intention and >understanding. > >The True Spirit Of Fasting > >Essentially every work which we do has two components. The first is its >purpose and spirit; the second, the particular form which is chosen to >achieve that purpose. Take the case of food. Our main purpose in eating >is to stay alive and maintain our strength. The method of achieving this >object is that we take a piece of food, put it in our mouth, chew it and >swallow >it. This method is adopted since it is the most effective and >appropriate one to achieve our purpose. But everyone knows that the main >thing is the purpose for which food is taken and not the form, the act >of eating takes. > >How would we react if someone tried to eat a piece of sawdust or cinder >or mud? You would say that he was mad or ill. That he would not have >understood the real purpose of eating and would have erroneously >believed that chewing and swallowing constituted eating. Likewise, we >would also call someone mad who thrust his fingers down his throat to >vomit up the food he had just eaten and then complained that the >benefits said to accrue from taking the food were not being realized. >Rather, on the contrary, he was getting thinner day by day. This person >blames the food for a situation that is due to his own stupidity. Thus >the purpose of eating cannot be achieved by merely fulfilling these >outward actions. > >Outward Replaces Real > >Perhaps we can now understand why our lbadah has become ineffectual and >empty. The greatest mistake of all is to take the acts of Prayer and >Fasting and their outward shape as the real Ibadah. Otherwise, how can >we explain, that a person who is Fasting, and is thus engaged in the >lbadah of Allah from morning till evening, in the midst of that lbadah, >tells a lie or slanders someone? Why does he quarrel on the slightest >pretext and abuse those he is quarreling with? How dare he encroach on >other people's rights? And how can he claim, having done all these >things, that he has still performed the lbadah of Allah? Does this not >resemble the actions of that person who eats cinders and mud and thinks >that by merely completing the four requirements of eating he has >actually done the job of eating? > >How, too, can we claim to have worshipped Allah for many long hours >throughout Ramadan when the impact of this whole exercise in spiritual >and moral upliftment vanishes on the first day of the next month? During >the Id days we do all that pagans do in their festivals, so much so that >in some places we even turn to adultery, drinking and gambling. And I >have seen some degenerates who Fast during the day and drink alcohol and >commit adultery at night. Most Muslims, Alhamdulillah, have not >fallen so low. But how many of us still retain any trace of piety and >virtue by the second day of Id? > >The Perspective > >This form has been prescribed to create in us such fear of Allah and >love, such strength of will and character, that, even against our >desire, we avoid seemingly profitable things which in fact displease >Allah and do those things which possibly entail risks and losses but >definitely please Allah. This strength can be developed only when we >understand the purpose of Fasting and desire to put to use the training >we have undergone of curbing our physical desires for the fear and love >of Allah only. > >Just as the physical strength cannot be obtained from bread until it is >digested, transformed into blood, which spreads through >every vein, so spiritual strength cannot be obtained from Fasting until >the person who keeps the Fast is conscious of its purpose and allows it >to permeate his heart and mind and dominate his thoughts, motives and >deeds. > >Fasting As A Way To Piety > >This is why Allah, after ordaining fasting, has said that Fasting is >made obligatory on you, so that you may attain to Allah-consciousness. >Note that there is no guarantee that you will definitely become >Allah-conscious and righteous. Only someone who recognizes the purpose >of Fasting and strives to achieve it will receive its blessings; someone >who does not, >cannot hope to gain anything from it. > >Conditions Of Fasting > >The Messenger (pbuh) has said: "If one does not give up speaking >falsehood and acting by it, Allah does not require him to give up eating >and drinking." (Bukhari). On another occasion, he said: "Many are the >people who Fast but who gain nothing from >their Fast except hunger and thirst; and many are those who stand >praying all night but gain nothing except sleeplessness." (Darimi). > >Faith And Self-Scrutiny > >The Messenger (pbuh) draws attention toanother aim of Fasting thus: >"Whoever observes the Fast, believing and counting, has >all his past sins forgiven." (Bukhari, Muslim). Believing means that >faith in Allah should remain alive in the consciousness of a Muslim. >Counting means that you should seek only Allah's pleasure, constantly >watching over your thoughts and actions to make sure you are doing >nothing contrary to His pleasure, and trusting and expecting the rewards >promised by Allah and the Messenger. Observing these two principles >brings the rich reward of all our past sins being forgiven. The reason >is obvious: even if we were disobedient, we will have now turned, fully >repentant, to our Master--and "a penitent is like one who has, >as it were, never committed a sin at all" as said the Messenger (pbuh). > >Shield Against Sins > >The Messenger (pbuh) said: "The Fast is like a shield [for protection >from Satan's attack]. Therefore when one observes the Fast he should >[use this shield and] abstain from quarreling. If anybody quarrels with >him, he should simply say: 'Brother/Sister, I am fasting.'" (Bukhari, >Muslim). > >Hunger for Goodness > >The Messenger (pbuh) once directed that a man, while Fasting, ought to >do more good works than usual and ardently desire to >perform acts of kindness. Compassion and sympathy for his brothers >should intensify in his heart because, being himself in the throes of >hunger and thirst, he will all the more be able to realize the misery of >other servants of Allah who are destitute. "In Ramadan, whoever provides >food to a person who is Fasting to break that Fast will earn forgiveness >for his sins, deliverance from the Fire and as much reward as the one >who is Fasting, without any reduction in the recompense of the latter." >(Baihaqi). > >Abdullah Ibn Abbas said the Messenger (pbuh) used to become unusually >kind and generous during Ramadan. No beggar in that period went >empty-handed from his door, and as many slaves as possible were set >free. (Baihaqi). > >By S. A. 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