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Fasting
Nutrition may be conveniently divided
into two phases positive and negative
corresponding to periods of eating and
periods of abstaining from food. Negative
nutrition has received the terms fasting,
inanition, and starvation. Fasting and
starving are separate phenomena well
demarked from each other? Inanition
covers both these processes.
Fast is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
word, faest, which means "firm"
or "fixed." The practice of
going without food at certain times
was called fasting, from the Anglo-Saxon,
faesten, to hold oneself from food.
Like most English words, the word fasting
has more than one meaning. Thus, the
dictionary defines fasting as "abstinence
from food, partial or total, or from
proscribed kinds of foods." In
most religious fasts abstinence from
proscribed foods is all that is meant.
We may define it thus: Fasting--is abstention,
entirely or in part, and for longer
or shorter periods of time, from food
and drink or from food alone.
“Fasting, as we employ the term,
is voluntary and entire abstinence from
all food except water.”Little
driblet meals," says Dr. Chas.
E. Page, "are not fasting. There
should not be a mouthful or sip of anything
but water, a few swallows of which would
be taken from time to time, according
to desire.” (Sheikh Muhammad Salih
Al-Munajjid, 1988)
We do not employ the word fasting to
describe a diet of fruit juice, for
example.
Inanition is a technical term literally
meaning emptiness, which is applied
to all forms and stages of abstinence
from food and to many forms of malnutrition
due to various causes, even though the
person is eating. Prof. Morgulis classifies
three types of inanition according to
origin, as follows:
1. "Physiological inanition which
is a normal, regular occurrence in nature.
The inanition constitutes either a definite
phase in the life cycle of the animal,
it is a seasonal event, or it accompanies
the periodic recurrence of sexual activity."
The cases of the salmon and seal and
of hibernating animals are examples
of this.
2. "Pathological inanition,"
which is in "various degrees of
severity associated with different organic
derangements"--obstruction of the
alimentary canal (oesophageal stricture),"
"inability to retain food (vomiting),"
"excessive destruction of body
tissues (infectious fevers)," and
"refusal to take food either because
of loss of appetite or mental disease."
3. "Accidental or Experimental
Inanition." "In this category,
of course, belong all individual experiences
which has been the subject of carefully
conducted scientific investigation."
In spite of these side effects, quacks
like to tell people that fasting is
different from starving. They say that
in fasting, the body relies on stored
reserves so it doesn’t get hungry.
In starving, the body has nothing to
eat at all.
However logical that distinction sounds,
the body can’t be fooled. It can’t
tell the difference between fasting
for spiritual reasons or starving during
famine. All it knows it that it isn’t
getting enough food and it will do what
it can to keep you alive. If stored
reserves are depleted, death follows."A
prolonged fast can lead to anemia, impairment
of liver function, kidney stones, mineral
imbalances, and other undesirable side
effects. Deaths due to prolonged fasting
have occurred, usually in people who
believe this would ‘purify’
their body or cure them of some disease,"
said Barrett, a board memberer of the
National Council Against Health Fraud,
Inc.
If you’re considering fasting,
follow the recommendations of the Department
of Health and US Public Health Service:
Never fast for more than a day for religious
or other reasons. Be wary of those who
promise freedom from illness with fasting.
That path won’t bring you enlightenment
but will lead you straight to hell.
Fasting is a rest--a physiological vacation.
It is neither an ordeal nor a penance.
It is a house-cleaning measure which
deserves to be better known and more
widely used.
Islam has widely propagated fasting
and has included it in one of the salient
features. Fasting, or siyaam, has two
meanings. Generally, siyaam or sawm,
is derived from the root sama, to restrain
from normal things, such as eating,
drinking, and talking. If an individual
refrains from these things, he is considered
saaim, the observer of fast.
In the Shari'ah, Islamic law, the word
"sawm" means and implies a
specific act, that, is, "to worship
Allah, abstaining, with intention to
please Him from fast breakers, such
as physical nourishment, food, drink,
and sexual intercourse or a lustful
discharge of semen from the period between
the break of dawn until sundown.
In a hadith by Abu Hurairah (raa), the
Prophet (saas) said: "Fasting is
not only to restrain from food and drink,
fasting is to refrain from obscene (acts).
If someone verbally abuses you or acts
ignorantly towards you, say (to them)
'I am fasting; I am fasting.'"
(Ibn Khuzaimah)
Indeed, these two reports imply fasting
will not be complete until one observes
three elements:
1. Restraining the stomach and the private
parts from the breakers of the fast
- food and drink,
2. restraining the jawarih, the other
body parts, which may render the fast
worthless despite the main factors of
hunger and thirst; so the tongue, for
instance, must avoid backbiting, slander,
and lies; the eyes should avoid looking
into things considered by the Lawgiver
as unlawful; the ears must stop from
listening to conversations, words, songs,
and lyrics that spoil the spirit of
fasting; and,
3. restraining of the heart and mind
from indulging themselves in other things
besides dhikir Allah (rememberrance
of Allah). [Archpriest Victor Potapov,
1988]
References
Sheikh Muhammed
Salih Al-Munajjid, ‘Al-Siyaam’,
70 Matters Related to Fasting, 1988,
page 92. Archpriest
Victor Potapov. The Lenten Fast, Parish
Life. March, 1988.
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