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Running Title: FASTING
Fasting
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Fasting
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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