Ibn Uthaymin on Some of The Benefits of Fasting
Al-Faqīh Al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ Al-ʿUthaymīn – Allāh have mercy on him -
explained some of the benefit of
fasting(1), summarised below.
Allāh
taʿālā prescribed various kinds of
worship, including those that involve spending of what is dear to oneself (e.g.
zakāh), withholding from doing what one
likes to do (e.g. fasting) and deeds that involve some degree of effort (e.g. ṣalāh, ḥajj). Through these different kinds of worship, those who truly
worship Allāh are distinguished from those who worship their desires.
Fasting in of itself has great wisdom behind it, including
the following:
1. achieving Taqwa, as Allāh taʿālā said in the Qurʾān
2. knowing the value of Allāh’s blessings: when a person misses food, drink and the
enjoyment of family, he can appreciate the value of having these blessings, and be more grateful to Allāh.
As the saying goes: By their opposites, things become clear
3. training oneself to develop patience, tolerance, and to
avoid extravagance
4. teaching the rich the need of the poor, to become more
compassionate towards them
5. restricting the routes through which Shayṭān travels within the body.
Fasting involves vasoconstriction, and
blood vessels are the channels through which Shayṭān moves, as the Prophet - ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa salam – told us
6. protecting against the accumulation of wastes and fluids,
thus it has been observed that some
people get healthier through fasting.
7. implementing the worship that surrounds fasting: at suḥūr (pre-dawn meal) and ifṭār a person is worshipping Allāh at the same time as satiating his
appetite
8. devoting ones time to worship: usually a person who is
fasting spends more time in worship and the day in which he fasts is not like
the day in which he is not fasting. The heedless, careless person is another
story, but the astute, resolute intelligent person distinguishes his fasting
days from the days he is not fasting.
1. Al-ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ. Fatḥ Dhī Al-Jalāli Wa Al-Ikrām Bi Sharḥ Bulūgh Al-Marām. Cairo: Al-Maktabah
Al-Islāmīyah, 2006. Print.
by Owais Al-Hashimi (حفظه الله), Sat 27 June, 2015
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SOURCE: https://owaisalhashimi.info/ibn-uthaymin-on-some-of-the-benefits-of-fasting/
Note: Posted with kind permission
