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Running Title: FASTING
Fasting
(APA Format)
Fasting
[Author's Name]
[Institution's Name]
Nutrition may be conveniently divided
into two phases positive and negative corresponding to periods
of eating and periods of abstaining from food. Negative nutrition
has received the terms fasting, inanition, and starvation. Fasting
and starving are separate phenomena well demarked from each
other? Inanition covers both these processes.
Fast is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word, faest, which means
"firm" or "fixed." The practice of going
without food at certain times was called fasting, from the Anglo-Saxon,
faesten, to hold oneself from food. Like most English words,
the word fasting has more than one meaning. Thus, the dictionary
defines fasting as "abstinence from food, partial or total,
or from proscribed kinds of foods." In most religious fasts
abstinence from proscribed foods is all that is meant.
We may define it thus: Fasting--is abstention, entirely or in
part, and for longer or shorter periods of time, from food and
drink or from food alone.
"Fasting, as we employ the term, is voluntary and entire
abstinence from all food except water."Little driblet meals,"
says Dr. Chas. E. Page, "are not fasting. There should
not be a mouthful or sip of anything but water, a few swallows
of which would be taken from time to time, according to desire."
(Sheikh Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid, 1988).We do not employ the
word fasting to describe a diet of fruit juice, for example.
Inanition is a technical term literally meaning emptiness, which
is applied to all forms and stages of abstinence from food and
to many forms of malnutrition due to various causes, even though
the person is eating. Prof. Morgulis classifies three types
of inanition according to origin, as follows:
1. "Physiological inanition, which is a normal, regular
occurrence in nature. The inanition constitutes either a definite
phase in the life cycle of the animal, it is a seasonal event,
or it accompanies the periodic recurrence of sexual activity."
The cases of the salmon and seal and of hibernating animals
are examples of this.
2. "Pathological inanition," which is in "various
degrees of severity associated with different organic derangements"--obstruction
of the alimentary canal (oesophageal stricture)," "inability
to retain food (vomiting)," "excessive destruction
of body tissues (infectious fevers)," and "refusal
to take food either because of loss of appetite or mental disease."
3. "Accidental or Experimental Inanition." "In
this category, of course, belong all individual experiences
which has been the subject of carefully conducted scientific
investigation." In spite of these side effects, quacks
like to tell people that fasting is different from starving.
They say that in fasting, the body relies on stored reserves
so it doesn't get hungry. In starving, the body has nothing
to eat at all.
However logical that distinction sounds, the body can't be fooled.
It can't tell the difference between fasting for spiritual reasons
or starving during famine. All it knows it that it isn't getting
enough food and it will do what it can to keep you alive. If
stored reserves are depleted, death follows. "A prolonged
fast can lead to anemia, impairment of liver function, kidney
stones, mineral imbalances, and other undesirable side effects.
Deaths due to prolonged fasting have occurred, usually in people
who believe this would 'purify' their body or cure them of some
disease," said Barrett, a board member of the National
Council Against Health Fraud, Inc.
If you're considering fasting, follow the recommendations of
the Department of Health and US Public Health Service: Never
fast for more than a day for religious or other reasons. Be
wary of those who promise freedom from illness with fasting.
That path won't bring you enlightenment but will lead you straight
to hell.
Fasting is a rest--a physiological vacation. It is neither an
ordeal nor a penance. It is a house-cleaning measure, which
deserves to be better known and more widely used.
Islam has widely propagated fasting and has included it in one
of the salient features. Fasting, or siyaam, has two meanings.
Generally, siyaam or sawm, is derived from the root sama, to
restrain from normal things, such as eating, drinking, and talking.
If an individual refrains from these things, he is considered
saaim, the observer of fast.
In the Shari'ah, Islamic law, the word "sawm" means
and implies a specific act, that, is, "to worship Allah,
abstaining, with intention to please Him from fast breakers,
such as physical nourishment, food, drink, and sexual intercourse
or a lustful discharge of semen from the period between the
break of dawn until sundown.
In a hadith by Abu Hurairah (raa), the Prophet (saas) said:
"Fasting is not only to restrain from food and drink, fasting
is to refrain from obscene (acts). If someone verbally abuses
you or acts ignorantly towards you, say (to them) 'I am fasting;
I am fasting.'" (Ibn Khuzaimah)
Indeed, these two reports imply fasting will not be complete
until one observes three elements:
1. Restraining the stomach and the private parts from the breakers
of the fast - food and drink.
2. Restraining the jawarih, the other body parts, which may
render the fast worthless despite the main factors of hunger
and thirst; so the tongue, for instance, must avoid backbiting,
slander, and lies; the eyes should avoid looking into things
considered by the Lawgiver as unlawful; the ears must stop from
listening to conversations, words, songs, and lyrics that spoil
the spirit of fasting.
3. Restraining of the heart and mind from indulging themselves
in other things besides dhikir Allah (remembrance of Allah).
[Archpriest Victor Potapov, 1988]
References
Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, 'Al-Siyaam', 70 Matters
Related to Fasting, 1988, pg 92.
Archpriest Victor Potapov. The Lenten Fast, Parish Life. March,
1988.
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