When does your fast really begin?

At the very beginning, we discussed the story behind this book. Was on his way to Hajj. And as he was on his way to Hajj, he decided to write about the prophet and so he didn't have any of his references with him. He didn't have any of his books with him which is curious because he's quoted from memory over three hundred books in this book here From memory verbatim. And he almost mentioned close to the majority of Muslim Ahmed, The biggest book that we have of the compilations of a prophet and Muslim and the six books of hadith discusses them in detail that indicates and articulate to us that this man was a gem of human of of human thought. And that he was extremely gifted and we can come to the conclusion that the of the prophet was not only memorized by him and believed deeply and digested but it was it seems that it flowed through his his blood and in his veins and made its way into his into his bones. So, he wrote this book from memory. Now, if you read the book, in an in order, you're going to notice that he kind of starts off on a particular path and then, you can almost feel he decided to go head and mention other things and go deeper into what he initially started. Because the beginning of the book really discusses first of all the and it's it's important and its authority and he places many many principles and fundamentals that he iterates and reiterates and bolsters with evidence, right? very eloquently how we should approach the the authority of the sunnah, etcetera and then he goes into things regarding the prophet that would be considered by the scholars as meaning the names of his animals, the names of his the people that would make a then for him the names of his guards, the names of his wives, the names of his children. He goes into that. And he takes a turn and starts to discuss the pillars of Islam. So, we see that the book flows in a in a particular way. However, it's not in exact order that you would expect the book to be in, right? So, you'll find between between the chapter of Salah and the chapters regarding fasting. There's this big intermission with regards to opening the heart and issues of the heart and so on and so forth and he has that throughout the book. Things just come to his mind. He writes it down. So, some scholars have tried to take the book and put it in order. What I mean by order is place everything where you would expect it to be as traditionally placed in the books of Filk. So, it's easier to find. But doing this makes things a little bit too easy. do I mean by that? It makes things a little bit too easy. Have we heard of Ibn Heban? Ibn Heban is the most illustrious student of Ibn Husema. And they are imams of Hadith, Ibn Huzaima Hazamusannaf, of Hadith and Ibn Hibban has a Sahih. Based on his particular his particular views with regards to authentication of narration. Major, major scholars of hadith, major scholars of of ancient. Wrote his book and he purposely made it out of order. Everything scattered all over through the book. Anywhere you'd expect to find what you're looking for according to traditional orders of books. You won't find it there. Why did he do that? He did it on purpose. He did it for that reason so that you would have to read the whole book and that you would have to look for it a lot in order to find it. This is of the ways that the scholars used to teach their students diligence and to teach their students how to look for things so that when you find them, you will not forget them. He did this on purpose. And this is why most of the books with that that have attempted to put Zad al Mahad in in order as it were. Have not been very successful. Because if if wrote this book as he wrote it according to the flow of thought that was going through his mind at the time and things are not where you'd expect them to be. And that's actually a good thing for a a good strong student. Someone who is looking to, looking to digest, and and hopefully even memorize not verbatim but memorized by meaning the entirety of the book. This book it it I can't over emphasize how important this book is in the Islamic Library. I mean, basically, he took the and the life of the prophet with all of the narrations that seem to be in conflict with one another and he harmonized them in a beautiful way and he drew and he drew many many conclusions from the of the prophet it's an stellar book and it should be left as it is. My personal opinion, I'm one of the I I am very, very, as you probably all guessed by now. I'm I'm very into the traditional way of studying. And the traditional way of studying dictates repetition, repetition, the traditional way of studying dictates, not reading a lot of books, but perfect most important books right? And also, that a book should be left the way the author wrote it. But for example, dictionaries. All of the dictionaries that we have, that you go and you find. Whether it's a almighty towards you know, even even which is a compilation of four dictionaries. This book which is a a lexicon dictionary of the Arabic language You will be very very hard. It will be hard and very difficult for you to find this book the way it was originally written. You know why? Because the way that the scholars of the Arabic language wrote dictionaries is they would start with the last letter. And go on to the second letter and then go on to the first letter. So, the order of the book is actually not starting with the first letter in English dictionaries. You open it, you look for the first letter of the word, then the second, then the third, you find your your word. It's not how Arabic dictionaries were written. Arabic scholars wrote their books the opposite. They start with the last letter. So, if you want to find something that's that if you want to find a word, you look for its last letter first. You go to that chapter and then you work backwards. There's a very important reason why they did that. And one of those reasons is to make it easier for poetry. When you are looking to write poetry, you find all of the rhymes and all of the letters that have similarities in all of the words that have similarities all clustered together. That's just one reason. There's many reasons. Because the Arabic language works very differently than the English language works. But what happened We took all the books. We entered the information in the computers. And then we had them alphabetized based on western Western Standard. So now all of the dictionaries that we have that are recently printed most of them. I don't want to say all but you're very hard pressed to find Al Qamus al Muhiat the way that the originally wrote it. Gonna be hard pressed to find out of the way that it was originally written and that honestly is is is very troubling. It's upsetting because this is not the way that the scholar wrote the book. It should be left alone. Leave it as it is. If you want to ride his coat tails, then, do it in a different way but if you take the book itself, just leave it as it is. He wrote it that way for a reason. These are scholars that have spent their lives studying and they know exactly how to teach. They know how to write books. So, anyways Traditionally, the the kind of took a turn and decided to go all out. It it would seem that way. You get that feeling when you're reading the book and so he starts to go into the the pillars of Islam. So, the first two volumes really are are about the pillars of Islam, the five pillars of Islam. Specifically, salah, fasting, zakah, and then he goes into Hajj and Hajj is a huge, huge, huge part of Zad Al Maad. He goes into extreme detail with the issue of Hajj. Now, We've discussed salah, we've discussed how the prophet made how he made we discussed how he made salah. We discussed a lot of the things with regards to that. Now, we're then we transitioned into an issue of the heart, issues of the heart, which have to do with the first pillar of Islam, That is Muhammad. He's discusses that at the introduction and in these intermittent chapters and now, he's going to start to discuss the issue of fasting. the issue of fasting. So, the first thing we're going to speak about with regards to fasting is the importance and the effects of fasting on the body. Now, before we start with what said, we're going to as usual, have an introduction and that is, what is fasting? What what comprises fasting? What is it? Well, the scholars have Filk. They categorize things any any war they categorize them into usually four categories, okay? Sometimes five. So, they will have conditions, pillars, obligations, and sunan. And sometimes they add a fifth which is things that are permissible, right? After they finish that, they will usually discuss the things that invalidate. What they just mentioned. This is how the books of Philcar traditionally written. Which is very nice, very very organized, okay? So, before we start, let's take first, what is the definition of fasting? We're going to take the word in its original Arabic context and that is a som. Solomon. Psalm. He al Masdar. The root word is sown. What is a Psalm? A Psalm in the Arabic language is to refrain. linguistically, what does it mean? To refrain and this is something that was brought up once. I remember that, is it permissible for a woman who is having, who had just had a child and she's having postpartum bleeding. Can she fast under these conditions? What's the answer? No. Of course not. As one of the things that invalidates fast, she's not obligated to fast during this time. So, how is it that Mariam Alaihi Salam after giving birth to Isa Alaihi Salam is instructed to say man. I have, vowed, a song to a Rahman. I vowed to be in a state of soul. Say, how can she fast while she's in postpartum bleeding? This is not fasting in the in the legislative meaning. This is fasting in the linguistic meaning. This is why she's she follows this up and says, so I will not speak to anybody Today, I will not speak. So, she is refraining, Refraining from Roet in this particular context, refraining from speaking. Right? So, this is the essence of what fasting is. A psalm. Fasting in the linguistic sense, a psalm, a is to refrain from doing something. Now, what does it mean in the legislation of Islam? They have defined. The scholars of have defined fasting as Bonjour. They say that the definition of fasting is to refrain from things which break your fast from the break of dawn until sunset. With the intention of doing so. This is what fasting is and the legislation of Islam. It's definition. Okay? Now, as we said, breaking fasting down into conditions, pillars, obligations, preferable things, Sunan. How do we break it down in that sense? Fasting is very easy. It has, it has two pillars. Number one, the first pillar is intention. Intention, that you have the intention to fast, before you begin fasting. In for obligatory fast. Any obligatory fast. Whether it's for Ramadan, whether it's for days missed in Ramadan, whether it's for a vow, whether it is for accidental manslaughter, whatever there is in the Quran that mentions or in the sunnah where a person fast and it's an obligatory fast. You have have the intention to fast before the break of dawn. They say. You have to have the fasting intention at night before the break of dawn. Once the break of dawn comes, that's when you start fasting. If you don't have the intention at that point, then, your fasting is not, cannot be valid because there's a portion of that day which you did not fast. Fasting comes in a unit. Just for example, if somebody got up and said, you know, I'd to pray Hafa Reka. I want to play, I would just want to pray half a Reka. So, I'm going to recite, make stand up, and that's it. Would this be valid? No, of course not. It has to come in units, right? If you're, if you're not praying which is one raka, you have to pray them in two, at least, at least in two. The same thing. And this is a common mistake people make. When they go for Omar or Hajj, it's a, it's and it's it's perfectly fine to make circumbomulate the Kaaba at any time. You don't have to be in a haram to do that. Let's say you go and you make and now you're waiting because you're doing and that's what most people do when they go for for Hajj. Usually they are doing the type of Hajj which is which means that you reach, you make Omarah and then you come out of Iran and then you go back into Iran on the eighth of in preparation for the day of Arafah. between the time when you reach and the time when Hajj starts, you're in your regular clothes. You're not in a haram, you're just normal. You have no no restrictions at all. And you go to the Kaaba and you pray. Can you make just by itself? Yes. You can make the left at any time. But the left has to be done in units of seven. You can't make three or four and it's valid. Oh has to be done in units of seven, always. Just making salah. It's always done in units of at least two. So, when a person makes and he begins his talaf, he needs to make seven rounds. If he wants that the left to be, considered valid. Same thing with fasting. If you fast for half a day, and then you break your fast. Is have you achieved a a complete fast? No, you've not achieved a complete fast, right? So, The definition of fasting is refraining from the things which break your fast which we will discuss inshallah the things that will break your fast. Refraining from the things which break your fast from the break of dawn. Another mistake made by a lot of people. I know of or I've heard of a doctor. a doctor, who spent us. Starting his fast at sunrise. is this person's fast valid or not? No, of course not. Because fasting doesn't start at sunrise. Fasting starts at the break of dawn. Because in Islamic law, the break of dawn, marks the beginning of the day. In Islamic law, the break of dawn is not part of the night time. It's part of the, it's part of the daytime. So, the daytime at the break of dawn, not at the rising of the sun. So, You have to begin your fast at the break of dawn. What is the break of dawn? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Allah says in eat and drink until you see the distinct thread, white thread, distinct from the black thread on the horizon of, of mourning, of the break of dawn. Refrain at that point from anything that will break your fast until the night time. When is the night time? The sunset. When this disc of the sun is under the horizon, that's it. It is no longer daytime anymore in the legislation of Islam. Now, it has become night time. Right? And this is why is referred to also as the first referred to as the first and that we traditionally know is referred to as the second because these are night time prayers. Okay? Is a daytime prayer. It's a it starts at the break of dawn. When the break of dawn becomes apparent in the horizon, there are two types of dawn. The scholars refer to them as there is the first appearance of dawn which is referred to by the scholars of as the false dawn. And then there is the second which is the true dawn. Your fasting is to begin at the true dawn. Just begins at true dawn. What a what am I speaking about? What does that mean? The way that you can tell, one of the ways that you can tell, the false dawn from the true dawn. When the sun rises, and begins to come out, we will have at first a burst of light in the eastern horizon where the sun is about to rise from. You can observe it. It's a burst of light and it looks just dawn. And then it will go away and it will be night again. Subhan Allah. And then we will have a second burst of dawn. That's the second one. The second burst of light. That is the true dawn. The false dawn is that first burst of light. How can we tell them apart? The false dawn always is disconnected from the horizon. So you'll see light here and you'll see darkness under it and you'll see the horizon there. Am I making sense? The true dawn is light that is connected to the horizon. That's the true dawn. So, your fasting begins at true dawn. And it ends when the disc of the sun is completely below the horizon. No matter how much light there is, okay? no matter how much light there is. No, it's still daytime it looks but we break our fast because we are not worried with the amount of light or the dissipation of light, we are worried with the disc of the sun that it is, it has sunk under the horizons no longer visible from our aspect. At this point, we break our fast. So, the definition of fasting is refraining from things that will break your fast from the break of true dawn until the sun, the disc of the sun, sets below the horizon with the intention to do so. And I say with the intention to do so and let's take a moment and discuss that. Some people think, not some, a lot of people. They think that intention is something that is very difficult to do. It's strenuous, right? I have to say a particular thing to make sure my intention is correct. When I go to make salah, I have to stand. you know, and recite some kind of thing that will iterate my intentions. This is all not something that the prophet was ever reported to have done. He or any of his companions anywhere ever. Intentions are where in the heart. Right? If a person is making or or sits in front of the sits in front of the you know in the place where you make wudu sits there and turns on the water and I stopped him and said hang on a second. What are you going to do right now? Obviously what are they going to say? I'm about to make voodoo So, why then do you have to say it? You don't have to say anything, right? You already have the intention. The same thing. If a person stands for salah and just before they make, I say, hold on a second. What are you going to do right now? They're going to say I'm going to make salah. The intention was already made when you left your house to come to the masjid. If you didn't have that intention, you would have never made it to the masjid in the first place. The place for intentions is in the heart. issue with saying your intention is what if you say something that you don't mean? So, let's say for example, a person stands for and he starts his intention, whatever it is. You know, when I was a kid, I was taught a particular way to say it. You know, the only thing that's left is the phone number and address and zip code. After after you say all of this, what about if I'm standing to make and I slip and I say but I'm standing for and I make salah. Is my salah valid or not? Yeah, it's valid. According to all the scholars, it's valid. So, if this statement you make has no bearing on the validity of the prayer, why are you saying it? Am I making sense? Does that make sense? Right. So, intentions are in the heart. You don't have to say your intention the night before. I intend to fast tomorrow, the first day of Ramadan. You don't have to say that. What's meant by intention is that you intentionally are fasting. You don't wake up and make a a decision. you know what? I might as well fast today and make it Rama No, it can't work that way. You have to. You have to have your intention the night before for obligatory fasting, right? When the scholars place emphasis on intention, they're not placing emphasis on what you say. They're placing emphasis on you what what you are intending to do. So, when I say for example, one of the conditions of prayer is intention. I have to have intention to pray, okay? What does this mean? or one of the conditions of is is intention. Some scholars can it's a a pillar Now, how does this affect anything? Well, let's say for example, somebody becomes Muslim is new to Islam or somebody doesn't know how to make Udu. So, I say, come, let me teach you how to make Udu, right? So, we both go and we go downstairs and we sit at the place and I say, okay, you do this and you do this and I I don't have Urdu and then the Adan is made. I just made I went through all the motions but I never had the of making My intention was what? To merely teach him how how to make wudul. Do I have to redo my waldu or not? Yes, I have to redo my wudu because I did not have intention of Udu. That's what the scholars mean when they're speaking about intention. Same thing with the for example, listen, bathing. You have to have intention. That this intention is I am I am bathing to remove Janeb, right? state of sexual impurity. So, let's say you know, in our in our time, in our place, usually, most of us, I don't know. myself, we, when you wake up in the morning, you take a shower. To get ready for work or whatever you're doing. Get ready for your day. You just take a shower and the shower is the same shower you would take for for Janeb. So, I forget that I'm in a state of Genava. I get up. I take a shower for my day. I put on a clothes, everything. I took complete shower but I didn't have the intention that this is for Geneva. Do I need to retake that bath or not? Yes, I have to retake it too. Remove the Geneva. This is what is meant by intention. What's meant, it's not meant by intention that a person has to say, okay, in a way, in a wait and await and none of this is part of part of the scholars intend, the the juris of Islam when they're speaking about intention being in condition of prayer or intention being a condition of fasting or what have you. So, you have the intention to fast before the day starts, the day starts at true break of dawn. That's when the day starts. If you don't have the intention at that time, what happens is you have not fasted a portion of that day. Any comes as a unit as we mentioned. So, what are the pillars of fasting Very simple. Fasting has two pillars. Two, number one, intention. We just discuss that. Number two, refraining from things that break your, that break your fast. That's it. Those are the pillars of fasting. If you fulfill these two pillars, then you fasted, right? Those are the pillars of fasting. Now, there are obligations of fasting too. Obligations of fasting is general generally abstaining from anything that is haram. Because this will deplete your fast. The real intention behind fasting is not that you starve your body of nutrients. The real intention of fasting is that you is that refrain from that which is haram. This is the real intention of fasting. The prophet said we were Rafat. He says true fasting is not to merely refrain from eating and drinking. True fasting is to refrain from that which is necessary and that which is haram. So, basically, wasting time, just doing things that are unnecessary, or doing things that are outward, outright haram. This, this is the purpose of this is the real purpose behind fasting. Now, there are certain things that will break your fast There are certain things that will break your fast. These things that we need to refrain from in order to maintain our fast. What are they? We can put a number on them. Number one, eating or drinking anything on purpose. Notice the statement on purpose. Knowingly. eating or drinking anything knowingly on purpose. And when I say eating or drinking anything, the nose and the mouth are both involved in that process. Because the nose goes into the throat. So, if a person were to drip things, medicine, whatever it is and it goes down into his throat, this is considered part of that. So, eating and drinking on purpose. If you do it, forgetfully, forgetting that you're fasting, you're fast is valid. Even if you eat a five-course meal, seriously, even if you sit down and eat for two and a half hours, the whole time you forgot your fasting. You're so full you can't move and then you remember, I'm fasting. Is your fast still valid or not? Yes. The prophet said, men he says, whoever is fasting and eats or drinks something, and forgets them he's fasting while doing so, then he is to complete his fast because it is Allah who has fed him or gave him something to drink. The point here is that when you are fasting, you have to have the intention to break your intention. If you do it forgetfully, you still, your fast is still valid. Let's take an example. Let's say somebody likes grapes, okay? And so they go and buy a bunch of grapes and they're walking, walking, walking around, eating these grapes, eating these grapes, and they forgotten that they are actually fasting at that time. And then they reached the last grape. and they remember that they're fasting So, they look at this last grape and they say, well, you know, I've already eaten the whole bag. I might as well, you know, not throw this one to waste and they eat the last grape. Which grape broke his fast? The last one. That's the one that broke his fast. All the other grapes, the whole thing, the whole bunch, didn't break his fast. Okay? This this is the the first thing that will break a person's fast. The second thing that will break a person's fast intercourse, sexual intercourse, and in the four any kind of sexual ejaculation. This will break a person's fast. Because part of the crux of fasting is to refrain from those two things. Eating and drinking and sexual pleasure. So this will break a person's fast as well. But if it is unintentional, then it will not break a person's fast. What that mean? for example, if a person falls asleep and has, has a dream. This will not break a person's fast. What will break a person's fast is intentional? Okay. The third thing that will break a person's fast is to intentionally vomit To intentionally, induce, vomiting, throwing up. To make yourself throw up. This will break a person's fast. If you throw up unintentionally, let's say you open a box or open a freezer or something. You smell something horrid and you throw up or you see something or you or something comes to your mind. You think about it and you throw up. Will this break your fast? No. What will break your fast is intentionally vomiting? Now, a person may say, why would this be something that would even come to mind? Well, there are times when a part of prophetic medicine is that you make yourself vomit sometimes. And the prophet did this. As is in What what does that mean? Let's say a person eats something that doesn't settle well with their stomach. Or they eat something that is they they feel is is rotten or poisonous or whatever. They will they will obviously make themselves vomit. A prophet did this. He must have eaten something. It was spoiled or whatever what have you. And so he made himself vomit. So if you make yourself vomit then your fasting is invalid for that day. But if you vomit unintentionally, your fasting is, your fasting is intact, okay? There are few other things that we'll mention inshallah. We've run out of time. we will discuss these things next week and then we'll start to discuss some of the benefits of fasting and some of the issues that Ibn Rahim Allah mentions that is enough for tonight.