Qur’an on Fasting
In Surah Al Baqarah, Allah (swt) says:
'You who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may be mindful of God.
Fast for a specific number of days, but if one of you is ill, or on a journey, on other days later. For those who can fast only with extreme difficulty, there is a way to compensate– feed a needy person. But if anyone does good of his own accord, it is better for him, and fasting is better for you, if only you knew.
It was in the month of Ramadan that the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for mankind, clear messages giving guidance and distinguishing between right and wrong. So any one of you who is present that month should fast, and anyone who is ill or on a journey should make up for the lost days by fasting on other days later. God wants ease for you, not hardship. He wants you to complete the prescribed period and to glorify Him for having guided you, so that you may be thankful.
[Prophet], if My servants ask you about Me, I am near.
I respond to those who call Me, so let them respond to Me, and believe in Me,
so that they may be guided.
You [believers] are permitted to lie with your wives
during the night of the fast: they are [close] as garments to you, as you are
to them. God was aware that you were betraying yourselves, so He turned to you in mercy and pardoned you: now you can lie with them–
seek what God has ordained for you– eat and drink until the white thread of
dawn becomes distinct from the black. Then fast until nightfall. Do not lie
with them during the nights of your devotional retreat in the mosques: these
are the bounds set by God, so do not go near them. In this way God makes His
messages clear to people, that they may guard themselves against doing wrong. (2: 184-188)
Prophetic Traditions: Ahadith on Ramadan Fasting
1. ‘Islam is based on
Five Principles and to observe Fast (according to Islamic Teachings) during the
month of Ramadan is one of them’.
2. ‘Whenever you sight
the new moon (of the month of Ramadan), observe fast, and when you sight it
(the new moon of Shawwal), break it, and if the sky is cloudy for you, then
observe fast for thirty days’.
3. ‘When Ramadan
enters, the gates of Paradise are opened, the gates of Hellfire are closed and
the devils are chained.’
4. ‘The five (daily) prayers, and from one Friday
prayer to the next and from Ramadan to Ramadan, are expiation for sins
committed in between, provided one stays away from the major sins’.
5.
Anyone who fasts for one day for Allah’s sake,
Allah will keep his face away from the Hellfire for (a distance covered by a
journey of) seventy years.
6.
‘Every action a son of Adam does shall be
multiplied—a good action by ten times its
value, up to 700 times. Allah says: With the exception of fasting, which
belongs to Me, and I reward it accordingly. For, one abandons his desire and
food for My sake’.
7. ‘There are two occasions of joy for a fasting person: one when he breaks
his fast, and the other when he meets his Lord, and the (bad) breath (of a
fasting person) is better in the sight of Allah than the fragrance of musk’.
8. ‘Fasting is a shield; so when one of you is
fasting he should neither indulge in obscene language nor should he raise his
voice in anger. If someone attacks him or insults him, let him say: ‘I am
fasting!’
9. ‘There are three persons whose supplications are
not rejected: The fasting person when he breaks his fast; the just leader; and
the supplication of the oppressed person’.
10. ‘Whoever observes fasts during the month of
Ramadan out of sincere faith, and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards, then, all
his past sins will be forgiven.’
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