In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. May Allah bless our master Muhammad, his family, and his Companions, and grant them abundant peace.

Book of Fasting

Section: The Etymology of Fasting

In Arabic, fasting means abstaining, refraining, and forgoing. Whoever abstains from something, forgoes it, and refrains from it is said to be fasting from it. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:

“Say, ‘I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful.’” [Maryam: 26]

This means abstaining and refraining from speech. Al-Nābighah said:

“Some horses stand still, while others do not, beneath the swirling dust;
And others champ their bridles.”

The same usage occurs in the words of Imru’ al-Qays:

“Leave this, and dispel your cares upon a weary she-camel,
Swift of gait when the day stands still in the midday heat.”

This means when the day reaches its midpoint and the sun stands at its zenith. When the sun is in the middle of the sky at noon, it seems to stand motionless because of its slow progress. The Arabs sometimes name a thing after something close to it.

Section

In religious law, fasting likewise means abstention, retaining its linguistic meaning rather than being transferred to a nonlinguistic sense. In religious law, however, it means abstaining from particular things at specified times and in prescribed ways. Thus, it is abstaining from food, drink, and sexual intercourse from dawn until sunset, accompanied by the intentions appropriate to its various forms, whether an obligatory fast