Fasting (Sawm) carries a two-fold meaning – twoseemingly opposing definitions combined into a single word. And sawm, asdescribed in the Qur’an and the hadith, simultaneously fulfills both of thesedefinitions. The primary meaning is to hold back, to refrain from, to abstain -the further meaning is to rise beyond, to move past former limits.
The month of Ramadan is a time in which we holdour bodily compulsions and instincts under strict control, together with ourthoughts and our mental states, our moods and desires. We submit ourselves (ournafs) and our accustomed patterns of life to a higher template, one that fostersa regimen of self-restraint within the body and mind and correspondingly seeksan intensification of the life of the spirit. The body is ordered to fast fromwhat it needs, from what is normally allowed to it, from what it desires, fromwhat it craves, from what it may seek on a whim, and from what it habituallyseeks – from all that leads to an intensification of the activities of the nafs.
During the interval of daylight, halal (theallowed) transforms into haram (the forbidden) and whatever nourishes thephysical body becomes haram. As for the nafs, it undertakes a psychic fast fromanger, backbiting, gossip, harshness towards others, from reaching in any mannerthrough any of the senses towards that which is disallowed. All thoseinclinations which strengthen the nafs, which allow it to inject itself withvigor and attachment into the flux of worldly life are proscribed and deniedexpression.
The nafs continuously asserts itself throughit’s ties with the body and according to a complex and ever-shifting world ofattraction and desire, knowledge and ignorance that endlessly churns within it.Through its movements and motions, it seeks what it needs and wants and canbecome, depending on circumstances, complacent or cavalier, disdainful orself-assured, arrogant or fearful, callous or ambitious, lethargic or craving -endlessly acting and reacting within the confines of its limited knowledge. Whatit does not know it is ignorant of, and what it does not know is infinitely morevast in extent than what it knows. So it’s knowledge is forever outweighed byit’s ignorance and it’s pursuits and actions are indicators of which of these(knowledge or ignorance) it acts upon.
The nafs is in continuous restless motion, butit is a motion that circumambulates around a center of manifold physical andchemical interactions that give rise to need, wants, pleasures, habits, moods,impulsions, compulsions, and desires. The complex system of body and mind are inan incessant state of movement (that ceases only with death), switchingcontinually from one mode to the other, pouring forth a torrent of thoughts andinternal impulses that turn the mind’s focus endlessly from one locus toanother. There is perpetual movement and motion but within tightly constrainedboundaries – pivoting around the locus of the nafs and what it seeks.
And so the qur’anic command is issued – “…fastuntil the night….” (Qur’an 2:187)Fast from what the nafs needs and desires. Let the nafs know that there is atruer aspect of yourself, a center capable of overseeing and stabilizing all theintersecting mental systems of the mind and all thematerial/chemical/habitual/hormonal systems of the body. Proclaim to it thatthere is a guardian and owner and ruler over the nafs and over the physical formwith which it is integrally co-mingled. Let it know that the form and thestirrings of need and desire within the nafs have to submit to this guardian inseeking their satisfaction. The wants, needs, and desires that spring from thematerial form must submit to the governance and tutelage of a higher form – tothe spiritual form indicated by the hadith that states: “Godcreated Adam in His own form….” (hadith)
This is not the material form driven bychemical interactions but the spiritual substance which is the subtle, essentialform of a human being – one that is masked by the ceaseless activity of anunconstrained nafs (nafs al-amarra).
The material form and its impulses (manifestedthrough the nafs) are reigned in during fasting. All the things which givestrength, vigor, and life to the body and nafs are terminated – the attachmentis reduced, denuded, weakened. We cease to consume and are no longer able toenjoy what feeds our physical form and with that cessation we begin to unhookthe clamps which bind us to the most basic goods of this world. We undo theshackles which tie us through our physicality to the world. By penetrating tothe very root of our attachment, to the most fundamental layer, to the very seatof our creaturely connection to the world – food, water, sex (the three cardinalsymbols of life) we overturn their dominion and arrive at a position where we,for a time, subdue them.
We deny creaturely externals, we let thecreaturely demands and impulses remain unanswered – over the course of the daysof fasting we let them subside and wane. We let them grow silent so we have achance to hear what we otherwise would not hear, to perceive what we otherwisecould not perceive. We subdue our physical form and when its clamoring growssilent we perhaps become aware of a spiritual form that resides subtly withinus.
The vigil of denial and regulation of thephysical form and the nafs is maintained until the spirit and mind’s ascendancybecomes clear. “Fast until thenight….” (Qur’an 2:187) The night approaches and the day’s fastends with the former hierarchy reversed – what was first (physically andpsychically generated needs, wants, and desires) comes last and what was lastcomes first, and with this new ordering of spirit and body in place, the fast iscompleted. Over the course of the month of Ramadan, as the days merge into thenights, this drama of reversal is repeated and intensified till the personfasting (the person who undertakes the fast with complete sincerity and profoundintensity) approaches a state of spiritual readiness.
Until in the watch (the vigil) of the last tennights of the month of Ramadan, there arrives the possibility of a profoundinner remaking, an unfolding of the potential to witness the laylatul qadr. “Andwhat can convey to you what laylatul qadr is? That night is better than athousand months….” (Qur’an 97:2-3) During the day we breakourselves down, we fast from what sustains our existence – we submit our clayform to be unmade, to be kneaded and worked over – we remove ourselves from ourmaterial subsistence and turn to prayer and spiritual subsistence from God – weprepare ourselves to be reshaped. The onset of the darkness of night isrepresentative of pure potential waiting to emerge into existence – waiting forthe command and decree which will give it form. “Theangels and the spirit (ruh) descend in it, by the command of their Lord withevery decree….” (Qur’an 97:4) We turn ourselves into malleableclay awating the shaping command of that night – anticipating the profound andweighty descents that accompany laylatul qadr. “(Thatnight is) Peace till the breaking of the dawn.” (Qur’an 97:5)
So sawm (fasting) fulfills its meanings – tohold back from, to abstain, pertains to the restraint engendered through thefast – to rise beyond pertains to the results that God bestows upon those whoseek the fast with sincerity and knowledge. So the fast is at once a holdingback and a lifting up. The body and it’s appetites are held back and throughthis holding back an elusive and subtle but profound awakening begins. We areprovided the means by which to alter our reality, to shape what we ourselvesare. By holding back the nafs from its activity and its sustenance, moments ofstillness, of silence, are obtained – moments in which self-perception sharpensand deepens and spirit awakens and the (spiritual) form with which God createdman begins to unfold itself. “And inyourselves – what do you not see?” (Qur’an 51:21)
Irshaad Hussain is a contemporary Islamicthinker and author of Islamfrom Inside.