JEDDAH, 1 November 2005 — More than ninety percent of the world’s population are adherents of one faith or another. Although religions differ in their specifics, they are more often than not united in practice. For one, nearly all believers fast certain days of the year, abstaining from food and drink, or certain types of food.
Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or Jain you will probably have fasted at one point in your life.
In Islam, to fast is to abstain from food, drink and marital relations from sunrise to sunset. Yet Ramadan is not simply about denial. It is essential that a fasting Muslim is also focused in thought on God, and reminded in his/her deprivation of those less fortunate. Charity plays a great part in Ramadan. People pay zakah as well as provide iftar, the fast-breaking meal, for the needy.
Fasting is an incredibly personal act of worship. “Because,” says Noor, “only you know if you are truly fasting, in both mind and body.”
“I fast because it brings me closer to Allah,” says Noor. “When I deprive myself of food I focus more on Allah and myself. Ramadan is a blessing. We are being given a chance to cleanse ourselves spiritually. Allah is giving us a chance to redeem ourselves with good deeds.”
Francesca, an Italian Catholic, says: “Fasting is something that helps you contemplate spirituality and remind you that the material objects are not the most important thing in life.”
One of the larger events in the Christian calendar is Lent, which is a period of 40 days that, as the Reverend David Maskell told Arab News, commemorates Jesus’ fast for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, as recorded in the Old Testament. Catholics fast the first and last days of Lent, known as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; while Orthodox Christians fast the entire 40 days as well as 45 days from Nov. 25 to Jan. 6.
Orthodox Christians also fast every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, similar to the Muslim fasting of every Monday and Thursday.
“It’s a process of purification,” says Roisin, a Buddhist.
Fasting helps you attain, says Rabbi Naftali Brawer, a “spiritual connection to God... It’s to better ourselves.”
Rabbi Brawer told the Arab News that there are, within the Jewish calendar, two major fast days and half-a-dozen minor fasts — in that they are observed by a “small minority of secular Jews.” Of the two major fasts, the first is known as Tisha B’Av (the ninth of the Hebrew month Av) which is a fast “in memory of the sack and destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and Romans.” The second is Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Fasting in Jainism precedes a festival. Of the 4.9 million vegetarian Jains, many will fast the 8 days preceding the festival of Paryushan.
Although there are set days for Buddhist and Hindu fasts, they vary greatly according to one’s particular following. 900 million Hindus will fast different days throughout the year from food and water or from certain food groups during the day. There are 376 million Buddhists in the world. In Buddhism, one might participate in a two-day Nyungnay fast, eating prescribed foods one day and nothing the second.
Interestingly, while Muslims abstain from food and water the whole day, fasting in Christianity is very diverse in its rituals. Many Christians will fast the whole of Lent by abstaining from a particular personal addiction, which might be anything from cigarettes to Internet chat rooms. Other fasts might involve removing one meal from the day, or fasting entirely the whole day.
On a Jewish holy day, fasting means abstaining from food, drink and marital relations for a little over 25 hours — from sunset the first day to nightfall on the second. For Jews work on a day of fast is discouraged, and the day is usually spent in the synagogue reading the Torah, the holy book of Judaism.
While the Judaic and Christian fasts are observed in memory of past sacrifices, Buddhist, Hindu and Jain fasts are purely spiritual and of one’s own choice. The day of the year, the type of fast and the length all depend on one’s own conviction. The uniting factor is that all followers of these faiths choose to fast to attain a level of spirituality that they feel is lacking in their everyday lives.
Buddhist monks of some orders fast every day after noon, while others go anything from eighteen to seventy two days only on water, although this is discouraged. Hinduism varies in that the fast may be from certain types of foods — one might only eat fruits and nuts the whole day
The similarities between global faiths are often greater than we are aware.
