Allah says in the Quran: 'O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain God-consciousness. (2:183)
"In the month of Ramadan, the Quran, a book of guidance with proofs of guidance distinguishing right from wrong, was revealed. Therefore, whoever of you is present in that month let him fast. But who is ill or on a journey shall fast a similar number of days later on. Allah desires your well-being, not your discomfort. He desires you to fast the whole month so that you may magnify Him and render thanks to Him for giving you His guidance." 2:185
Accordingly, the month of Ramadan is called the month of the Quran; therefore, Muslims have tradition of reciting Quran frequently in this month.
Sawm or Fasting:
Sawm means a fast that begins with dawn and ends with sunset. Muslims rise before dawn, eat Suhur (pre-dawn meal) and drink liquids for the preparation of Sawm (fasting). Eating and drinking stops at dawn. During the day no eating, drinking or sexual activity is allowed. In addition, a Muslim must adhere to the moral code of Islam very strictly as failure violates the requirements of fasting.
Fasting in the month of Ramadan is one of the deeds of worship required of all Muslims who have attained puberty. Women who are having their menstrual period or who have not fully recovered from childbirth, postpone the fast until they are completely out of their special conditions. In addition, those who are ill or in travel may choose to postpone their fast.
Muslims fast because Allah has commanded them to do so. However, they may also think about the benefits of fasting which may include developing control over hunger, thirst and sexual urges, training to be a good moral person and, testing sincerity to the Creator. During the fast, Muslims may conduct their business as usual. However, in the Muslim countries working hours are shortened by a couple of hours a day and the hours are changed to make the work comfortable.
The fast is broken immediately after sunset, usually by eating dates and drinking water or juice. However, any lawful food or drink may be used to break the fast. This is followed by the Maghrib salah (after sunset prayer) which is followed by a complete meal. After a brief rest, Muslims go to the mosque to offer the Isha salah (night prayer) and then a special night prayer, called Taraweeh.
fasting and health
after long experiments and research, fasting has been proved as a cure to many of the body diseases or at least improved the body health, in these two studies we focus on the importance of fasting and in the same time a patient must consult his doctor before fasting .
Every patient carries her or his own doctor inside."--Albert Schweitzer, M.D., 1875-1965, Alsatian medical missionary, theologian and musician
"Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness."--Hippocrates, M.D., 460-377 B.C., Father of Western Medicine
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."--Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, America's greatest inventive mind (patented 1093: light bulb, phonograph, microphone, carbon telephone transmitter, motion-picture camera, et. al.)
As Michael Rosenbaum, M.D., Director of the California-based Orthomolecular Health Medicine Medical Society, notes: "The hidden cause of many chronic pains, diseases and illnesses may be invisible toxins, chemicals, heavy metals and parasites that invade our bodies. . . .Chances are slim that your doctor will tell you that toxins may be the root cause of your health problems. He or she may not even know about how these toxins are affecting your body. . . .As your cells go, so goes your health. If your cells have been invaded by toxins and dangerous chemicals, your resistance to disease is diminished. Clean and nourish your cells, and you're on the road to better health."
Fasting - an "operation without surgery"
"Fasting is, without any doubt, the most effective biological method of treatment... it is the 'operation without surgery'... it is a cure involving exudation, reattunement, redirection, loosening up and purified relaxation. While fasting, the patient improves her or his physical health and gains much. But he or she will have neglected the most important thing if the hunger for spiritual nourishment that manifests itself during fasting is not satisfied." said Otto Buchinger, Sr., M.D., Germany's great, self-described "fasting therapist," who founded the most famous of several renowned, European Buchinger Kliniks in 1952.
Prolonged, scientific fasting has proven itself, over several thousand years, as humanity's oldest, fastest and most effective weight-loss, detoxification, healing and longevity-enhancing modality known to mankind - both curative, as well as preventive - and here are the reasons why:
Just as hibernating bears and migrating whales, as well as much smaller beings, including caterpillars, salmon,hedgehogs, snakes, salamanders, spiders, turtles, tadpoles and woodchucks, do live for many months each year without eating, your body is brilliantly designed to live on its own stored substances. Similarly, during skillful, therapeutic and prolonged juice-fasts (and every reputable fasting book today begins with a warning that noone should ever undertake a prolonged fast without professional supervision, initially), your body will brilliantly live on its own stored substance via "autolysis", or autodigestion. Marvelously, the body decomposes and burns all the cells and tissue which are aged, damaged, diseased, weakened or dead.
Autodigestion during fasting
During fasting, your body will "autolyze", or self-digest, its most inferior and impure materials and metabolic wastes, including: fat deposits, abcesses, dead and dying cells, bumps and protuberances, damaged tissue, calluses, furuncles (small skin abscesses, or boils), morbid accumulations, growths, and amazingly, various kinds of neoplasms (abnormal growths of tissue, or tumors). In "Fasting and eating for health", Joel Fuhrman, M.D., notes, p. 10: "The fast does not merely detoxify; it also breaks down superfluous tissue - fat, abnormal cells, atheromatous plaque, and tumors--and releases diseased tissues and their cellular products into the circulation for elimination. Toxic or unwanted materials circulate in our bloodstream and lymphatic tissues, and are deposited in and released from our fat stores and other tissues. An important element of fasting detoxification is mobilizing the toxins from their storage areas."
Fasting gives your digestive system a rest
For perhaps the first time in your entire life, fasting affords a physiological rest to the digestive, assimilative and protective organs of your body. Fresh fruit and vegetable juices require little digestion, and are quickly assimilated from the upper digestive tract. Therefore, most of the 10% of bodily energy normally involved in your mastication, assimilation, digestion, and elimination is freed up. This is another reason you'll feel more - not less - energy throughout properly-done juice-fasting - unlike the physically debilitating weakness water-fasters experience.
Additionally, these many fruit and vegetable juices all supply excellent energy, minerals, vitamins, live enzymes, and other nutrients necessary to enhance health during the fast. By providing much of the body's daily caloric needs with easily-digested juices, the release of toxins from the fat cells is much more gentle and gradual.
Scientific fasting enhances longevity, as Doctor Fuhrman notes in "Fasting and eating for health", p. 27: "If we restrict the calories an animal can eat, by underfeeding it or periodically fasting it, we can significantly prolong its life. In fact, periodically fasting animals can double their natural life span.(1,2)
Today, every intelligent Cybernaut understands that a greater degree of health, clarity of consciousness, restored vitality, enhanced spirituality, and freedom from premature aging and dis-ease are well worth the effort required to achieve them.
As Michael Rosenbaum, M.D., Director of the California-based Orthomolecular Health Medicine Medical Society, notes: "The hidden cause of many chronic pains, diseases and illnesses may be invisible toxins, chemicals, heavy metals and parasites that invade our bodies. . . .Chances are slim that your doctor will tell you that toxins may be the root cause of your health problems. He or she may not even know about how these toxins are affecting your body. . . .As your cells go, so goes your health. If your cells have been invaded by toxins and dangerous chemicals, your resistance to disease is diminished. Clean and nourish your cells, and you're on the road to better health."
Wonderfully, scientific fasting is both therapeutic or curative, as well as prophylactic or preventive. Therapeutically, according to Otto Buchinger, Sr., M.D., one of my greatest, unmet mentors of therapeutic fasting supervision, it's advisable for many of our modern illnesses, including the following: allergies, cardiovascular disease, chronic diseases of the digestive system, degenerative and painfully inflammatory illnesses of the joints, myriad disturbances in one's eating behavior, glaucoma, initial malfunction of the kidneys, tension and migraine headaches, as well as the skin diseases. Preventively, it's designed to cleanse, and to regenerate, rejuvenate and restore a person's sense of well-being, in body, mind and soul. As Doctor Buchinger would conclude: "When the body fasts, the soul is hungry; when the body becomes lighter, the soul also craves relief." Prophylacticly, fasting also actively guards against physical and mental fatigue or exhaustion.
"Fasting is, without any doubt, the most effective biological method of treatment. . .it is the 'operation without surgery'. . .it is a cure involving exudation, reattunement, redirection, loosening up and purified relaxation. While fasting, the patient improves her or his physical health and gains much. But he or she will have neglected the most important thing if the hunger for spiritual nourishment that manifests itself during fasting is not satisfied."--Otto Buchinger, Sr., M.D., Germany's great, self-described "fasting therapist," who founded the most famous of several renowned, European Buchinger Kliniks in 1952, serenely overlooking Lake Constance, in his eighth decade. His grandson, Andreas Buchinger, M.D., now directs the Buchinger Klinik in Bad Pyrmont, Germany. (Those requiring a residential facility may contact FCI for information regarding this renowned juice-fasting clinic.)
