Last week we said a fasting person tries to resist being drawn into a quarrel by saying, “I am fasting.” He says it to the other person in clear terms if this happens in Ramadan when every Muslim is supposed to be fasting. This serves as a reminder to the other party, if he is a Muslim, that the code of conduct Islam requires of its followers, especially during fasting, does not approve of any such quarrels.
If the situation arises when one is fasting voluntarily, or outside Ramadan, then it is preferable to make the statement, “I am fasting”, to oneself. This serves as a reminder that one must not be drawn into such a situation. It also prevents any possibility of boasting about one’s fasting, should one make this statement aloud. Indeed, the other person may touch on this statement and accuse him of boastfulness, which may lead, in turn, to an even worse dispute.
A sacred, or Qudsi, Hadith we quoted last week attributes the following statement to God: “All actions a human being does are his with the exception of fasting which belongs to Me, and I reward it accordingly.” (Related by Al-Bukhari.) This is indeed a great promise. When God rewards an action as purely His own, the reward is limitless. God’s generosity knows no limits. It is not measured by percentage, multiplication or any mathematical method. It is only commensurate with God’s own glory. It is sufficient to remember here that people normally weigh their actions according to their position. People always think: It is unbecoming of a person in my position to do this or to do that. If the reward is given according to God’s position, then we do not have to think about its extent. We have only to remember that God’s generosity knows no boundaries. It is useful to mention here that another version of the same Hadith states: “Fasting belong to Me and it is Me who rewards it.”
It may be pertinent to ask why fasting has been singled out as belonging to God when all acts of worship are dedicated to Him. Moreover, any good action a believer does is normally done for God’s sake. All scholars agree that this is because, by its very nature, fasting cannot be done in order to gain favor with people, or for boastfulness, show off or deception. Fasting is an act of abstention that is not possible to recognize or identify by appearances. All other acts of worship can be seen by people. Hence, they may be done for purposes other than to please God and gain His reward. Not so fasting which can be known only if the person concerned tells other people of his fasting. If a person goes around and tells others of his voluntary fasting, he may be seeking to win favor with them. But this is achieved through the act of telling them, not through fasting itself. Therefore, when a person fasts for God’s sake, telling no one of the fact apart from his immediate family who are bound to know, his action is said to be dedicated purely to God. It is this fact that earns that person such limitless reward.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) also teaches us that there is another side to the reward which fasting earns. He mentions that certain actions, such as prayer, charity or sadaqah, and zakah ensure the forgiveness of past sins. Fasting is high on the list of such actions. There are numerous Hadiths that confirm this fact. We are told by the Prophet that proper fasting, done with sincerity and dedication, ensures the forgiveness of all sins committed in the preceding year, with the exception of cardinal sins. Indeed, some Hadiths do not make this last exception. The Prophet says: “He who fasts Ramadan motivated by his faith and with dedication will have all his past sins forgiven.” (Related by Al-Bukhari.)
It is for this reason that Muslims prepare themselves for the advent of Ramadan with the resolve to make all their worship, fasting and prayers included, free of any trace of hypocrisy. They are keen to achieve the degree of dedication that ensures the maximum reward from God. After all, we always commit mistakes and we always face the temptation to fall in sin. It is only natural that we should be keen to have our sins and mistakes forgiven. When we have clear statements from the Prophet to the effect that fasting ensures God’s forgiveness, then we find the difficulty of fasting very easy to overcome. Hunger and thirst are no longer hard to bear.
All this stress on the idea of reward may suggest to some people, especially non-Muslims, that we fulfill our worship duties purely for the sake of the reward we are promised. This is not so. The motive of faith is much stronger. The ultimate goal is to please God. The reward is secondary. Hence, the stress in the Prophet’s statements on the need for fasting and all acts of worship to be motivated by faith and offered with dedication. The reward is a mark of God’s generosity.
The Prophet was keen to point out the moral value of fasting. He states, for example: “The smell of the mouth of a fasting person is preferable, in God’s measure, to the smell of musk.” People like good smell. The perfume trade is a highly lucrative one. No one likes to be known to have a bad mouth smell. Roses and flowers that have good fragrance are favorite with all people. In this statement, the Prophet touches on a very important point. Normally, if one does not eat for several hours, his mouth smell changes. He tries to wash his mouth or to brush his teeth, in order not to have a bad smell. But the person who fasts is not supposed to do anything of the sort. Indeed, brushing one’s teeth with a toothbrush, or a tooth stick, i.e. miswak, is strongly discouraged at any time from noon onwards of the day of fasting. Needless to say, using toothpaste is not allowed, because of the likelihood that one may swallow some of it or of the water with which one rinses one’s mouth. But even without toothpaste, the use of a toothbrush is discouraged because it changes the mouth smell. That very smell is preferable to God than the smell of musk. Musk gives one of the best smells known to man. All people like it especially because it overpowers any bad smell in the vicinity. When musk is considered inferior to the smell of the mouth of a fasting person, the honor God gives to those who fast appears to be great indeed.
We may note here that this statement is given in a figurative way. God is not affected by smells, foul or pleasant. He does not need a good smell in His presence, either to expel any bad smell or for its own sake. It is common, however, for God and the Prophet to use figurative expressions in order to emphasize a certain notion to us. What the statement means is that God rates the mouth smell of a fasting person higher than we rate the smell of musk. Some scholars suggest that the angels find the mouth smell of fasting people better than we find musk smell. Whatever the case may be, this statement is meant to strengthen our resolve to fast with dedication because fasting achieves for us such a position when our smell is better than musk.
When we consider such limitless reward and such moral value which are attached to fasting, who of us would want to fail to fast, unless he lacks faith? The Prophet, however, was keen to drive the point home to us. Consider the following Hadith: “There is a door to heaven called Al-Rayyan through which only fasting people are admitted. It will ask: where are the fasting people? They stand up. No one is admitted through that door except them. When they have entered, the door will be closed and no one else can get through it.” (Related by Al-Bukhari.) While this Hadith indicates that fasting people have a special status on the Day of Judgment that merits the provision of a special door for them to be admitted into heaven, the name of that door is very significant. Al-Rayyan is an adjective that describes in normal usage something which is ripe, full of juice. It is normally used to describe fruit and vegetables that have fully ripened. Needless to say, a person who fasts throughout the day, especially in the long days of summer, suffers from thirst. Nothing is dearer to him than a cool drink. When his gate to heaven is called Al-Rayyan, with all its associations and connotations of juice and ripened fruits, it is left for our imagination to draw a picture of what awaits the one who fasts.