CHAPTER 3
ṢAUM OR FASTING

Ṣaum

The primary signification of ṣaum is abstaining, in an absolute sense.1 In the technical language of the Islamic law, ṣaum and ṣiyām signify fasting or abstaining from food and drink and sexual intercourse from dawn till sunset.

Institution of fasting in Islām

The institution of fasting in Islām came after the institution of prayer. It was in Madīnah in the second year of Hijrah that fasting was made obligatory, and the month of Ramadzān was set apart for this purpose. Before that the Holy Prophet used to fast, as an optional devotion, on the tenth day of Muḥarram, and he also ordered his followers to fast on that day, it being a fasting day for the Quraish as well, according to ‘Ā’ishah (Bu.30:1). The origin of fasting in Islām may thus be traced to the time when the Holy Prophet was still at Makkah, but, according to Ibn ‘Abbās, it was after his flight to Madīnah that he saw the Jews fasting on the tenth day of Muḥarram; and being told that Moses had kept a fast on that day in commemoration of the delivery of the Israelites from Pharaoh, he remarked that they (Muslims) were nearer to Moses than the Jews and ordered that day to be observed as a day of fasting (Bu. 30:69).

A universal institution

In the Holy Qur’ān, the subject of fasting is dealt with only in one place, that is, in the 23rd section of the second chapter; though there is mention on other occasions of fasting by way of expiation (fidyah) in certain cases. This section opens with the remark that the institution of fasting is a universal one. “O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard against evil” (2:183). The truth of the statement made here — that fasting “was prescribed for those before you” — is borne out by a