The Purpose of Fasting - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

The Purpose of Fasting

The Obligation and Purpose of Fasting

O you who believe, the fasting has been prescribed on you as it was prescribed on those who were before you, so that you may attain piety and taqwa. In this ayah, Allah made a mention of the obligation of fasting as well as the purpose and the wisdom behind fasting. Allah says: so that you may attain piety and taqwa.

What is Taqwa?

Taqwa consists of two things. The first one is more important than the second one.

Taqwa means to refrain and abstain and stay away from committing sins — to stay away from the disobedience of Allah. And the second part of taqwa is to obey Allah; to perform good deeds, to worship Allah. You can say the first part of taqwa is to do with don'ts: do not do this, do not commit this sin, do not commit that sin. And the second part of taqwa is to obey Allah, to try your best to increase your acts of worship, to please Allah.

Increasing Good Deeds in Ramadan

When it comes to the month of Ramadan, no doubt, Muslims generally try their best to increase their good deeds in terms of their salah. Even those who are not regular in their five daily prayers throughout the year, many of them become regular in five daily prayers during the month of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah. This is something that is required — something that is part of the taqwa, something that is the wisdom and the reason behind the obligation of fasting.

Many of us try our best to attend the masjid for Salatul Taraweeh at night. This is also good — something that is required. We should do it. We should try our best to attend the masjid for Salatul Taraweeh. We also fast during the day because this is an obligation; this is the pillar of Islam. Many of us give in the way of Allah, we give in charity in order to please Allah. And even many of us have decided to pay our zakat within the month of Ramadan, which is also permissible. And we do other acts of worship and other good deeds — for example, reading Quran, making dua. All these good deeds are requirements of the taqwa and the fasting as well.

The Forgotten First Part of Taqwa

But many of us, unfortunately, we tend to forget the first part of taqwa, which is to refrain from committing sins. Every one of us should be asking ourselves: since the month of Ramadan has started, how many bad deeds, how many sins have I given up? Have I refrained from lying? Have I refrained from backbiting, from cheating, from watching haram, from listening to haram?

Rasulullah ﷺ said to Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him — and this was a specific advice of the Prophet ﷺ for Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah in a gathering — when Rasulullah ﷺ asked the companions:

He said to his companions: "Who amongst you is willing to take some words of advice from me, with the condition that he will try his best to act upon these pieces of advice, or he will teach these words and this advice to someone who will be willing to act upon them?"

Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, stood up and said:

"O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I accept this condition, so please teach me." Rasulullah ﷺ advised him with five things, and the first one was:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2305)

"O Abu Hurayrah, stay away from all types of haram." Haram includes everything — anything and everything that is prohibited, everything that is forbidden by Allah and by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

اتَّقِ الْمَحَارِمَ — stay away from haram. And the word here is اتَّقِ, which also comes from taqwa — have taqwa from haram, refrain from haram. Then he ﷺ said the outcome and the result of this would be تَكُنْ أَعْبَدَ النَّاسِ — you will become the most worshipping amongst the creation of Allah.

So in this particular hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ did not say: "O Abu Hurayrah, if you increase your salah, if you increase your fasting, if you increase your giving in charity, if you increase your dua, if you increase reading the Quran, then you will become the most worshipping." Rather, he ﷺ said:

Stay away from haram. Refrain from haram. Refrain from all types of sins, and then as a result of this you will become the most worshipping slave of Allah.

Fasting Without Avoiding Sin Bears No Fruit

That is why Rasulullah ﷺ has said:

Whoever does not give up false statement, false speech, acting falsely, and the speech and acts of ignorance — then Allah is not in need for him to give up and to stay away from eating and drinking.

He ﷺ also said:

(Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 1690)

There are many people who do fast in the month of Ramadan, but they do not get anything from their fasting apart from hunger and thirst — meaning there is no reward for them — and this is solely because of not staying away from haram.

So my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, as part of Siyam, as part of fasting, we must try our best to stay away from all types of sins. And the most common one — one of the most common sins that almost every one of us falls into — is the sin of backbiting: not safeguarding our tongue, not staying away from lying, not giving up swearing. We must safeguard our tongue. This is the actual essence of Siyam.

The Meaning of Sawm — To Refrain

The word Sawm and Siyam also means to refrain — the word Sawm itself means to refrain, to abstain, to stay away, to give up. Allah says in Surah Maryam, when Maryam was about to give birth to Sayyiduna Isa, Allah said to her:

"O Maryam, eat and drink and find the means of coolness of your eyes, and whenever you see a human being, say: I have vowed or I have promised to the Most Merciful for Sawm." What does Sawm mean here? "So I will not speak to anyone today." So the fasting of the belly and the stomach, the fasting of the tongue, the fasting of the eyes, the fasting of the ears — these are of the utmost importance.

That is why the first part of taqwa is to refrain from committing sins, and the second part is to offer good deeds and to perform good deeds.

The Lesson from Sayyiduna Yusuf

That is why Imam Ibn al-Jawzi in the tafsir of Surah Yusuf, where Allah made mention of the incident when the wife of Al-Aziz of Misr invited Sayyiduna Yusuf to commit a sin — he said, "I seek refuge in Allah," and he stayed away from committing sin despite having all the means and not having any barrier. Sayyiduna Yusuf stayed away from committing sin. Imam Ibn al-Jawzi says in the tafsir of this ayah: "Here is the true worship. This is the true worshipping of Allah. In order for you to prove that you are the worshipper of Allah, you do not need to necessarily perform two rakaat in order to prove that you are the true worshipper. Rather, in order to prove that you are the true worshipper of Allah, you need to refrain from committing sins, you need to abstain from committing sins."

May Allah give us ability to rectify our mistakes and our errors, and may Allah allow us to fulfill the requirements of the fasting during the month of Ramadan, and may Allah enable us to train ourselves to stay away from committing sins in this month so that we stay away from committing sins for the rest of the year. May Allah give us tawfiq and ability.

Practical Steps to Avoid Sin

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, in order to stay away from committing sins, we need to take some practical steps. One of them is to stay away from the situations in which you are likely to fall into committing sin. For example, if you are sitting in a gathering where people are backbiting — leave that gathering. Stay away from those types of people who always indulge in backbiting. Stay away from them; do not have friendship with them. Or at least advise them if you want to stay in that gathering. So any situation that will cause you to fall into sin — you must try your best to stay away from that situation.

And also we need to ask Allah constantly that He helps us to stay away from sins. Rasulullah ﷺ has taught us a beautiful statement that you should be repeating very often. He ﷺ taught us to say:

He ﷺ said:

This statement — لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ — is a great treasure from the treasures of the throne of Allah, because the meaning of this statement is: "I have no ability whatsoever to stay away from sins, and I have no power to perform any good deed, except by the permission and the help and the assistance of Allah."

So we should be repeating this on a regular basis: لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ.

May Allah give us tawfiq and ability to make the most of the month of Ramadan. May Allah allow us to stay away from all types of sins and haram. And may Allah give us tawfiq and ability to increase our acts of worship.