The Book of Fasting

His statement, “The Book of Fasting”: As we have previously mentioned, the jurists divide their works into books, chapters, and sections.

A book deals with a general category; a chapter addresses a particular type within it; and a section addresses individual issues. For example, the Book of Purification is a general category, whose types include the Chapter on Water, the Chapter on Vessels, the Chapter on Ablution, the Chapter on Ritual Bathing, the Chapter on Dry Ablution, and the Chapter on Menstruation, among others.

Thus, the Book of Fasting is a general category, following the preceding books on prayer and zakah; this is the book of fasting.

The scholars arranged the chapters of jurisprudence relating to acts of worship in accordance with the Hadith of Gabriel (1), and with one wording of the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar (2). They therefore placed prayer first, then zakah, then fasting, and then pilgrimage.

Purification was placed before prayer because it is a condition for it and the key to prayer. They therefore placed it before prayer. Otherwise, they could have included it among the conditions of prayer—that is, within the Book of Prayer. But because they considered it prayer’s key, and because there is much to discuss concerning it, they placed it before the Book of Prayer.