fasting in Islam does not mean simply abstaining from food, but from every kind of evil. In fact, abstention from food is only a step to make a man realize—if he can, in obedience to Divine injunctions, abstain from that which is otherwise lawful for him—how much more necessary it is that he should abstain from the evil, the consequences of which must no doubt be evil. It is, in fact, like a training of the faculties of man, for as every other faculty of man requires to be trained to attain its full force, the faculty of submission to the Divine will also requires to be trained, and fasting is one of the means by which this is achieved. In addition to that, fasting has its physical advantages. It not only makes man habituated to bear hunger and thirst, and thus to accustom himself to a life of hardship, so that he may not he too much given over to ease, but also exercises a very good effect upon the health generally.
The subject is dealt with in the Holy Qur-án in the 23rd section of the 2nd chapter. The number of days on which fasts are to be kept is twenty-nine or thirty, according to the number of the days of the month of Ramaḍán. Food and drink of every kind are prohibited on the fast days from dawn till sunset. So also sexual intercourse. Being a lunar month, the Ramadan falls in different seasons in different years, and accordingly the days are sometimes too lengthy in some countries for ordinary constitutions to bear hunger and thirst during the long interval. The analogy of the sick and the traveller, who are enjoined to keep fasts during other days than Ramaḍán, leads us to the conclusion that in such exceptional cases the observance of the fasts may be transferred to shorter days–say to the season when from dawn to sunset would be about fifteen hours, being about the longest duration of the fast in Medina or Mecca.
It may be noted that persons who suffer from constant sickness, men and women too old to bear the hardship, and women who are in the family way and those who give suck, are excused, but they should give away a poor man’s food every day, if this is within their means. There are sayings of the Holy Prophet which expressly mention these exceptions.
3. "ZAKÁT," OR THE POOR-RATE
Every religion of the world has preached charity, but, like prayer, we find here method and regularity given to this institution, so that it has assumed in Islam a permanence which is not encountered anywhere else. Islam makes charity obligatory and binding upon all those who accept the Muslim faith. Here we have a brotherhood into which the rich man cannot enter unless and until he is willing to give part of his possessions for the support of its poorer members. There is no doubt that the rich man is not here confronted with the insuperable difficulty of making the camel pass through the eye of the needle before he can enter the kingdom of heaven, but he is subjected to a practical test which not only makes him stand on the same footing with his poorest brother, but also requires him to pay a tax—a tax which is levied on the rich for the benefit of the poor; and thus is a real brotherhood established between the rich and the poor.
The payment of the poor-rate is an injunction next in importance only to prayer. In the Holy Qur-án it is very often mentioned in conjunction with prayer. The zakát is, according to a saying of the Holy Prophet, a charitable gift taken from the rich for the benefit of the poor. Every person is rich within the meaning of this saying who has in his possession silver or other property of the value of approximately Rs.50, or gold of the value of about £12. No zakát is, however, payable on jewels, nor on house furniture, utensils, implements, or other property or live stock in ordinary use. On all hoarded wealth within the above definition which has remained in the possession
