Fasting and God-Fearing

[Repeat post. First posted on 08/07/2014, but now some changes have been made to it.]

Introduction

Fasting is a commonly used word that is found in all countries and religions. This wide expanse of people's knowledge suggests their realisation of its benefits, though their practices and concepts vary.

In Islām fasting is a command from God to the Muslims, so it becomes worshiping of Him by observing it. Beside health benefits, fasting is a means of spirituality, a means of being social and a means of attaining nearness to God. This nearness is a figure of expression –for no one goes near to God in a physical sense.

Because the practice of fasting brings a total intervention to the intake of food and drink over a set period of time, people's thought processes often posit on modes other than the habitual. When the habitual daily routine changes, the practitioners are in a position of opportunity to think of life and its journey, and so too about its purpose of being.

The human have souls and they are on their journey towards Afterlife. Before reaching the destiny, they need to be purified, refined, and this is the story of man on earth.

This essay is an attempt to explain a few aspects of fasting that relate to our journey and our action in this life. Two Arabic words: taqwā (تقوي) and ṣawm (صوم) are chosen as our starting point. Some verses of the Qu’rān, and some hadithes will be considered. As the soul will reach the journey's end, it will be with a desire to see God. But some will be resurected into life as blind (20:125). In order to avoid this peril, one needs spiritual devotion. Fasting is one such devotion. Let us move with our essay.

Taqwā

We will first try to explain the word 'taqwā'.  Literally it means protection and guarding. In a spiritual sense, this protection is mostly from carnal desires, from evil temptations and action too. It is about freeing oneself from the inner chain that bind us all internally. It's  a struggle to stay aloof from the wrong doing, and to live within the lawfulness. And of course, it is  about avoiding all that are unwanted, the bad and ugly (of the desires and behaviours).

The verbal root of taqwā is waqā-yaqī (يقي-وقي), meaning to guard, safeguard, or to take care of. Of this root, the eighth form of the verb becomes ittaqā-yattaqī, which has a reflexive meaning around oneself, yet with the sense of 'protecting' and 'guarding' against committing wrongful act. This verbal form carries a notion of intensity, repeatedness, and steadfastness -for this process needs to be continuous, ongoing throughout the life. The soul must purify, achieve transparency to be with those who wake up with full sight, and with the ability to see God. But a little caution here. Some scholars think it will be only a mirroring -for God cannot be seen (6:103), but those who see it possible use these verses:  وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَّاضِرَةٌ ﴿٢٢﴾ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ ﴿٢٣ Upon that day faces will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord (75:22-23).

We can now take an example from Omar (r.), the Khaliph of Islam and Ubay bin K'ab  (r.) to understand taqwā. Once Umar (r.) asked Ubay (r.):

'What is taqwā?

'Have you ever walked on a path with thorns by the sides?’ said Ubay (r).

‘Yes’, said Umar (r.).

‘What did you do then?’ Asked Ubay (r.).

‘I rolled up my sleeves and struggled (through) carefully’, said Umar (r).

‘That was taqwā’, said  Ubay (r). 

This example shows that in order not be entangled with thorns one takes care. Exactly like this is our journey to the destiny: one should not get entangled with the worldliness.

Ṣawm

The Arabic word for fasting is ṣawm -صوم (and صيام  ṣiyām too), meaning abstinence from something. It also means a period of fasting, i.e. the month of Ramadhan. In classical use, one could say, أقمت بالبصرة صومين  I stayed  two Ramadhans (ṣawms) in Basra. Ṣawm is used as a noun of compliment. For example, هو صوم  huwa ṣawmun, he is fasting. In classical time ṣawm could be used in a sense of abstinence from talking. Mariam, the mother of ‘Īsā said,  إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لِلرَّحْمَـٰنِ صَوْمًا فَلَنْ أُكَلِّمَ الْيَوْمَ إِنسِيًّاI have vowed to the All-merciful a fast, and today I will not speak to any man.

Let us see a few more examples from the verbal form ṣāma -to fast and also from its declension.

1. Ṣāma al-fars (صام الفرس) -the horse has stopped eating, while (مصام) maṣām, (a noun of time and place), is a standing place or station of a horse.  Maṣamun najm (مصام النجم) is what the Arab of the classical time thought of as the nightly station of the Pleiades, (a group of stars called al-Surayyā in Arabic).
2. Ṣāmat al-shams ( صامت الشمس) -the Sun (as in the hot mid-day sky, as if) has become stand-still
3. The famous pre-Islāmic poet ‘Imra’ul Qais wrote: كأن الثريا علقت في مصامها ‘The Pleiades are as if hanged up on their standing-place’ (مَصَام). The poet's reference is to a group of stars called al-Surayyā (Pleiades) which appeared to him as immobile at night 

In these examples, the word has been used for stopping, suspending and immobilisation. This meaning is extended to the religious practice of fasting to control and regulate carnal desires and temptations. From this, religious fasting became abstinence from food, drink and coitus act. Because it is in religion, "intention to obey the command of God" is the fundametal part of it. If God is not intended, then, it is merely abstinence, not religious fasting.

Fasting and socio-spirituality

There is a social dimension to fasting: Islām is a society, so a 'socio-spiritual' aspect inheres in it. In order that a society achieve its mutual safety and peacefulness individuals' anger, pride, egocentrism must have control, so that one does not fall victim to another. Consider the following ḥadīth.

The messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, 'a Muslim is he from whose tongue and hand (other) people are safe, and a believer is he from whom (other) people's lives and wealth are safe' (Abū Hurairah/al-Nasā’ī, link to the text).

Most Islāmic worship and practices are socially intertwined. In their daily prayer they say 'Ihdinas ṣitaṭal mustaqīm - (God) show us the righ path', the socially the plural form is used, although a person can be praying alone, and so are many other duas (prayers). The Zakāh is for the poor, the Ḥajj is a grand union and in all this the notion of community is visible.

The inner quality of god-fearing and fasting is associative. The Qur’ān says:

O those who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it has been prescribed for those before you, that you may be god-fearing (2:183).

Al-Qushayrī (d. 465 h), a commentator of the Qu’rān, says, ‘there are two aspects of fasting. One is outwardly (ظاهر), which is withdrawal from food and drink with intension and the other is inwardly (باطن), which is fasting of the qalb (heart), saving it from causes of corruption and (spiritual) decay. Then there is another aspect which is the protection of the ruh (soul) from dwellings in the unwanted, and then there is another which is the protection of the sirr (the secret) from the being watch and watching’. (Tafsīr Laṭā’if al-Ishārāt on verse 2:183, original text link) . Certain terms here are sūfī oriented in thought and practice.

To al-Baqlī  (D.606 H.), a sūfī commentator of the Qu’rān, fasting is about transcending human impurity and reaching the state of peace and nearness (Original text-link).

The Honour of Man and the vision of God

After the fall of Ādam God honoured him and his offspring, but they have to keep their dignity. The Qu’rān says:

We have honoured the sons of Adam and carried them on land and sea and have made provision of good things for them; and conferred on them special favours above many things we created. On that day We will call all human beings with their Imam; and whoever will be given their book in their right hand, they will read their book; and they will not be dealt with unfairly at all. But those who were blind in this world will be blind in the hereafter, and most astray from the Path’ (17:72).

From this vere the following can be noted:

(1) honouring the sons of Adam
(2) conferring on them special favour and
(3) resurrecting some of them as blind

The ‘special favour’, to Ibn al-‘Arabi (D. 638 H.) is for man’s ‘ability to speak (النطق), the ability to distinguish (التمييز) and the ability to know (المعرفة). As for Allāh’s preference of people (like the Prophets) over Angels, that is not simply because they are human beings, for they do not surpass the state of intelligence (مقام العقل from others), but for the ‘secret’ (السر) disposed on them. The Qur’ān indicates to it by the reply of Allāh to the angels, ‘إِنِّيۤ أَعْلَمُ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ –‘I know what you do not know’ (2:30). This secret that the angels did not know, which has been induced in Ādam (pbhu), had distinguished him from others, and so the angels were asked to bow before him [link to original text here].

As for those who remain blind (spiritually) in this world will wake up blind in the Hereafter. Their inner curtain will manifest in a way that they might not see God. All will have been resulting from excessive worldliness. Carnality (الشهوة) will be one among the major.  There is a du‘ā’ in a ḥadīth which reads like this:

[My Lord] I ask you for the joy of looking at your face, and for the yearning to meet you without any calamity, or any harm causing deviation. O Allah, beautify us with the adornment of faith and make us among those who guide, and are rightly guided (original text link).

However, the state of blindness will not be permanent, or might not relate to all, as other verses of the Qu’rān speak of them as having the ability to see. For instance we read, ‘lataraunna al-Jahīm. Thumma tataraunnahā ’ainal yaqīn – you will certainly see (the fire of) Hell! Again, you will see it with certainty of sight (102:6-7)!

The Conclusion

We talked about the meaning and purpose of fasting. In it, we looked into the word meaning of ṣawm and tawā and how they relate to the practice. Eventually the entire practice is about improving our behaviours and thought processes. If we were to live in a jungle, many struggles for improvement would not have been necessary, the animals do not. This was one aspect, but the other aspect was the Hereafter. Shall we all practice it with both objectives in mind.

The path may be full of thorns, but the travellers must go. May the month of Ramadhan bring a different realisation and blessing to all.  

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