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Inner Dimension of Fasting: Three grades of fasting It should be known that there
are three grades of fasting: ordinary, special and extra-special. Ordinary fasting means
abstaining from food, drink and sexual satisfaction. Special fasting means keeping
one's ears, eyes, tongue, hands and feet-and all other organs-free from sin. Extra-special fasting means
fasting of the heart from unworthy concerns and worldly thoughts, in total
disregard of everything but Allah. See not what displeases
Allah A chaste regard, restrained
from viewing anything that is blameworthy or reprehensible, or which distracts
the heart and diverts it from the remembrance of God. The Prophet, said: the
furtive glance is one of the poisoned arrows of Satan, on him be God's curse.
Whoever forsakes it for fear of God, will receive from Him, great and gracious
is He, a faith the sweetness of which he will find within his heart.' Jabir relates from Anas that
God's Messenger, on him be peace, said: 'Five things break a man's fast: lying,
backbiting, scandal mongering, perjury and a lustful gaze.' Speak no evil Guarding one's tongue from
twaddle, lying, backbiting, scandal mongering, obscenity, rudeness, wrangling
and controversy; making it observe silence and occupying it with remembrance of
Allah and with recitation of the Quran. This is the fasting of the
tongue. Sufyan said: "backbiting vitiates the fast." Layth quotes
Mujahid as saying : "Two habits vitiate fasting: backbiting and telling
lies.' The Prophet said: ' Fasting is
a shield; so when one of you is fasting he should not use foul or foolish talk.
If someone attacks him or insults him, let him say:” I am fasting, I am
fasting!" Hear no evil Closing one's ears to
everything reprehensible; for everything unlawful to utter is likewise unlawful
to listen to. That is why Allah equated the eavesdropper with the profiteer
" (They like to) listen to falsehood, to devour anything forbidden"
(part of Quran 5: 42). Do no evil Keeping all other limbs and
organs away from sin: the hands and feet from reprehensible deeds, and the
stomach from questionable food at the time for breaking fast. It is meaningless to fast, to
abstain from lawful food, only to break one's Fast on what is unlawful. The object of Fasting is to
induce moderation. The Prophet said 'How many of those who Fast, get nothing
from it but hunger and thirst!' Avoid overeating Of what use is the fast as a
means of conquering God's enemy and abating appetite, if at the time of
breaking it not only makes up for all one has missed during the daytime, but
perhaps also indulges in a variety of extra foods? It has even become the custom
to stock up for Ramadan with all kinds of foodstuffs, so that more is consumed
during that time than in the course of several other months put together. It is well known that the
object of fasting is to experience hunger and to check desire, in order to reinforce the soul in piety. If the stomach is starved from
early morning till evening, so that it's appetite is aroused and it's craving
intensified, and it is then offered delicacies and allowed to eat its fill, its
taste for pleasure is increased and its force exaggerated; passions are
activated which would have lain dormant under normal conditions. It is therefore essential to
cut down one's intake of what one would consume on a normal night, when not
Fasting. No benefit is derived from the fast if one consumes as much as he or
she would usually take during the day and night combined. Look to Allah with fear and
hope After the fast has been broken,
the heart should swing like a pendulum between fear and hope. For one does not
know if one's fast will be accepted, so that one will find favor with God, or
whether it will be rejected, leaving one among those He abhors. This is how one
should be at the end of any act of worship one performs.__._,_.___ |
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