Who Must Fast? Understanding Islam's Five Core Conditions

Assalamu alaikum.

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Later became between the two and that that is a strategy of teaching an entire society to take up a particular a particular fundamental of Islam or or or principle of Islam. And this pattern is seen throughout the Quran and Sunnah. Sometimes, when things are made obligatory or when things are prohibited upon a society as a whole in the Quran in the we see this gradation that it will start easy and then become slightly more difficult, slightly more difficult until it reaches its final stage. Sometimes, it will start easy and then become more difficult and then become less difficult depending on the on the actual issue at hand with fasting, it began easy. A person would fast by choice or feed for every day that they miss a poor person. Then, it became very difficult because of a person fell asleep after the Adan and woke up during the night. They could not eat anything or drink anything until the following day at and then it later settled on what we know fasting to be now which is with the stamen of Allah and eat and drink until you see the break of dawn. This is where the gradation of fasting and its incremental obligation. started as and where it resulted at. We spoke about its history. We spoke about some of its benefits but we'd to discuss today in more detail the pillars of fasting and very importantly the things that break a person's fast and also Things that do not break a person's fast that are commonly known amongst people or people misunderstand to be something that will break your fast. So, Islam, Alam Aliya, Al Kauia, Alah,.

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Age a person who is sane, a person who is a resident, meaning they're not traveling, a person who is of sound body, meaning they are not ill and a person who is, this is specific to women, or females, that, the, she not to be, that she be in a state of purity, meaning she is not, in a state menstruation or he is not in a state of postpartum, postpartum bleeding. Now, we discuss some of these rulings last week. We will go over them and review them very briefly. The first thing is that a person be of pubescent age which means that a person be at the age of puberty and to Thomas.

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Have reached the age of puberty. What do we mean by the age of puberty? We're speaking about when is a person considered to be an adult? When is a child no longer a child and considered to be an adult in Islamic law? Meaning that, obligations are obligatory upon them, prohibitions are written against them, etcetera. At what age? there's a lot of talk about this amongst the scholars of Filk and these things can boil down. We can boil them down to four things. Three of them are you are unisex and a fourth is specific to females. The first thing is a wet dream and that is the ability for a male or a female to have sexual a to the point of ejaculation The second is that the pubic hair becomes starts to grow. When a person's pubic hair around their private parts begins to grow, this is considered the age of puberty. Third third of all, is if none of these things happen, the latest, the absolute latest a person will become an adult is the age of 15 years old and we discuss this rather lengthily last week. The fourth and final thing which is specific to the females is that they have their menstrual cycle. Once a person has any one of these or multiple of these things occur, they have reached the age of puberty. Now, they are held accountable and we mention what is the age of puberty? What is puberty? Ma Puberty is when the brain and the mind of a person goes through a change to where they now are able to not only recognize right from wrong but also they are able to tie in the consequences of right and wrong. So, they understand this is right and this is wrong but they also are now able to look into the future in a way and see that consequences for rights and consequences for wrong and understand that correlation and understand that causation. This is what puberty is. And when the brain goes through this process of puberty, it will secrete into the body, hormones. And these hormones will have an effect on the body, have an effect on the sound, have an effect on the voice, etcetera. But it's most prominent effects as we've mentioned, are these four things that we have just, that we have just listed. So these four things, they indicate that the brain and the mind has gone through that change to where a person now not only understands right and wrong or not only knows right from wrong. I mean, if you ask a child, is this right? Is this wrong? The child will respond. Yes, this is right. No, this is wrong. However, can the child positively tie in his mind or in her mind between this being right and wrong and the consequences of right and wrong The answer is this is cemented and becomes firmly established in the mind at the age of puberty and this is why a person is not held accountable until the age of puberty. And so, once a person reaches this age of puberty by one or all of these things that we've mentioned, the person now becomes obliged by the laws of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As the prophet has mentioned that and his mention that the pen until he regains his sanity, the person who is, the person who is a child until they reach the age of puberty. So, this is this is what is important with regards to we can kind of understand from this narration The close correlation between a person who's sleeping, a person who is insane, a person who is a child, a person who's sleeping in your dreams, you may do things in your dreams, or you may say things while you're dreaming, and you may even know that these things are wrong, but they still happen, right? And you have very strange consequences to these things in your dreams, or while you are sleeping. You may say things, you may do things, and you're sleeping, you're not held accountable for these things. wise a person who is not saying a person who is insane and there is a very specific meaning to insanity in Islamic law which will go over inshallah and that is that a person is insane legislatively in jurisprudence of Islam that this person cannot tie between right and wrong cannot tie between the consequence of actions and the causes of their actions and so forth. They're not able to make that, make that connection. Likewise, a person who is young until they reach the age of puberty. The second thing we mentioned is Al Amruthani, a a Psalm, who a lady, Yakunu, Yakunu, Akilan.

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Has a book that he authored. Some scholars debate whether this book is is truly his writing or not. But it has been widely considered to be authentically the book of and wrote a book called the.

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Between insanity and a lack of intelligence is a person who is insane may take the proper steps to reach a particular goal. However, the goal that they are trying to reach is not correct but a person of of low intelligence, a person of of idiocy is a person who whose goal is correct but the way that they go about achieving that goal is is foolish. There's a difference between the two in Islamic law. When we speak about insanity, we're not speaking about what people refer to as mental illness today. That's a very broad stroked meaning and and you know, there's a reason that mental illness has been so expounded upon in our time There is a mixture of truth and falsehood in the psychiatry and psychology elements of our society, the psychologist, the psychiatrist. Yes, this science has evolved. It has taken on many things and it's done a lot of good for a lot of people that needed some care. However, it's become so broad that it's turned into a money machine of sorts. Meaning that it's almost impossible. Almost impossible. That you or I or any person you've met is considered to be mentally sound. If we go by the criteria and the amount of mental illnesses that are mentioned, every single of us is considered to be mentally ill. The perfection of mental health is not even existent. It's non-existent. And this shows us that it's gone further than it should, right? So, mental illness has expanded to a point and bloated to a point that it includes everyone of us, all of us, right? And a result of that is it's almost impossible, not impossible but almost impossible To go to psychiatrist and not leave with medicine. It's almost impossible Not 90%, 95, ninety-nine percent, I dare say, of the time, if you go to a psychiatrist, you will be prescribed some kind of medication. Which, which calls into question, the veracity of a lot of the claims of mental illness, and the book of mental illnesses that is referred to and referenced. , it's started out as having about 60 or 70 things and now it's bloated to the hundreds of, of mental illnesses that are considered mental illness. So, the the term mental illness has become very expanded and that is a lot of it has to do with money. A lot of it has to do with money. Because we have major pharmaceutical manufacturers. That insist and higher researchers to research and do tests and do you know do do do you know, different types of experiments and so forth and the meaning of mental illness expands and expands and expands and so there's a medicine for almost every single person. So, there's hardly a person that you know that could, I've, I've never met a person that would not fit some kind of definition of one of the many, many, many types of mental illness that they are. Now, this is not me discrediting psychiatry. It's not me editing psychology. These are sciences that are very important and crucial in our in our time and to humanity and a lot of these medicines have in fact helped a lot of people, a lot of people but also, it has bloated far beyond what it should be. To the point that I've mentioned. So, when we speak about sanity, Islamic jurisprudence definition of sanity is that a person is able to hold a proper intention and they are able to understand that intention, right? So, they are able to understand what they're doing and understand the consequences of what they are doing. And they're able to refrain from doing that which is bad, harming others, etcetera. This person is a person who is considered legislatively sane. But now has different levels just like insanity has different levels. If a person is clinically depressed, right? And I mean really clinically depressed. I'm not talking about they're just down a little bit because of their circumstances. I'm talking about no matter how good things are, no matter how much they pray, no matter how much this, they're clinically depressed and there are definitions for that, which and certain criteria for that. If a person is very seriously clinically depressed. They may do things. They may say things. They may not do things. And they know that these things are wrong or they know that these things need to be done. However, will they be held accountable for this? The answer is, they will be held accountable, but this illness that they have, does mitigate the accountability that they will, will have, with regards to this illness. So, if a person, if a, a person becomes clinically depressed, they know that, this action is haram but they do it, right? Will that exonerate them that they're clinically depressed? No, they're not insane. They're sane. They know that this is wrong. They know that, you know, but because of the circumstances of their state of mind, it may lessen their accountability but it won't exonerate them. Persons who who's clinically depressed or a person who has, you know, is is been has been you know, classified as having in other kinds of other kinds of other kinds of mental, mental illnesses or issues You know, such as such as for example, schizophrenia, that's a very good example. A person who has schizophrenia, they start to often times, they're the first, the first, the first symptoms of schizophrenia that come on early and we don't really understand schizophrenia very well but usually it's a genetic thing and schizophrenia usually comes on either because of schizophrenia or extreme or drug use. Especially when a person is very young. When their brain is still developing and their teenage years. And they start to do things like different drugs and experiments with marijuana. Especially marijuana's very dangerous drug. Especially on a young mind. That is still growing it's on our in our society. It's passed off it's nothing. It's a very serious thing. And it's very much has long-term effects on the development of the mind. The person who does this is more prone to schizophrenia. Which will usually rear its head in the person's 30s or 40s. Sometimes earlier. Now a person who's schizophrenic, the first symptoms they will have usually is that they will start to have kind of scattered thoughts they can't really keep keep one train of thoughts and then after that, they may start to hear voices that are not their own voice in their mind. They might start to actually literally hear things or literally see things, okay? Now, a person who has schizophrenia, there there's many different, there's many different levels of schizophrenia. A person may just hear voices occasionally, a person may just hear voices but they still retain their sanity in the sense that they know this is wrong. The voices are telling them to do something wrong or that this is right and the voices are telling them not to do this thing that is right. However, schizophrenia may get so bad that a person completely, completely loses their sanity. So, there's different levels. It's not all the same. So, the point I'm trying to make here is that we need to differentiate between clinical mental illness and mental illness or insanity in Islamic law. Insanity in law is the person is unable to make a proper intention The person is unable to understand what it is that they are doing. This person has fallen into a state of insanity or their sanity has been taken from them momentarily because of extreme anger or extreme sadness or because of a fall. They fall in their head. They get a concussion. They start to scramble things. They don't know where they are They get panic attacks. Something like this. This is a type of insanity. This person is is a momentary insanity. This person is not obliged to fast. Rather when this person is in this state, they they are not obliged to fast. Let's say a person has this happen to them before the sun rises. Before keyword, before the sun rises, okay? They did not start their fast yet. and then the next day, they're fine. Let's say a person falls, hits their head, and they're not well for two or three days, okay? Before the sun rises. Are they obliged to make up that fasting or not? The answer is no. Because we said this is the criteria for fasting. Fasting was not obligatory upon that person. Okay? Contrary to a person who fasts a portion of the day and then and then this happens to them. This person began fasting. This person would have to make up that fast. Etcetera. The next thing that we want to speak about is a person who is a resident Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Al Mu Call Allah.

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Defined what that means. Number three, that the person needs to be a residence. Meaning that they're not traveling. They're not a traveler. Now, this issue of a traveler and a resident. It's an issue that's debated highly amongst the scholars of Filk of Ancient Time and recent and latter. However there if we look closely into the verses of the Quran. We look closely into the verses of the prophet into the narrations of the prophet we will come to realize that there's really only two categories of person, people with regards to this issue in the Quran and Sunnah. The categories are a person is either a resident or they are travel those are the only two. Some of the scholars have mentioned, some of the have mentioned. A third category and that is a traveler, a a resident, a traveler, or a person who is a resident traveler. So, they have three categories. They say a person who's a resident us. Now, now, this is our neighborhood. We live here and then we have a traveler and then they have a resident traveler. What is a resident traveler? They say, well, an example of these three. Is for instance, a person is here, they're going to go for Umrah. When they're here, there are residents. Once the plane takes off, they are a traveler Once they reached their hotel, they are a resident traveler And what are the rulings of a resident traveler? According to this opinion, the rulings of a resident are the rulings of the resident traveler. Yet, this this categorization is not very strong. If we look at the Quran, we look at the of the prophet we see only two types and that is a resident or a traveler. Right? A resident or a travel if a person is a resident, they are in their place of residence where they reside and where they live. If they are in a foreign place and for a time which is not going to make them to be considered a resident such as they buy a house or they live there or what have you. Then this person is a traveler. And this is the opinion of Sheikh Al Islam Rahim Allah and many others. And also the opinion of Sheikh. Sheikh whose book we are reading now. we will continue on this the following class. Next week and the week after, our class will be will be postponed next week. I will not be here in the week after I will not be here. the following week inshallah after the eleventh of March, I will be back inshallah.