Fasting's best lesson virtue of self-restraint

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): Practicing fasting during the holy Ramadhan month is always spiritually enriching.

Abstaining from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse between dawn and dusk is simply the means to attain the spiritual experience, but it is certainly not the ends.

For those who feel they have reached that level of experience, there is a deep sense of happiness that far outweighs the pain, if you can call it that, of foregoing food and drink and all the pleasures of worldly life during the daytime.

Fasting is also intended to promote a sense of social solidarity among Moslems. By fasting, they will feel what it is like to go without food for a few hours, a fraction of what many of their less fortunate brothers and sisters have to endure for longer periods every day.

This particular aspect of fasting has probably diminished over time, especially for those who live in big cities. Working within the comforts of air-conditioned offices and driving in air- conditioned cars, most people no longer have to sweat it out to get through Ramadhan the way they used to a decade or two ago.

Noted Moslem scholar A. Mustofa Bisri believes that what counts most is the intention of fasting. It determines whether your fasting is accepted or not.

Gus Mus, as the 53-year-old father of six daughters and a son is popularly known, talked about the essence of Ramadhan with The Jakarta Post by phone from his residence in Rembang, Central Jakarta, on Friday.

Questionb: What differences do you see in fasting today and during your childhood?

Gus Mus: There are significant differences. During our childhood, we observed Ramadhan only to imitate adults. It was more for the fun of it. Sometimes we secretly drank while taking a bath. And I also experienced a totally different Ramadhan during my days at an Islamic boarding school.

Nowadays, I always spend the fasting month at home with my family. So together we welcomed Ramadhan, perform the fasting ritual and celebrate Idul Fitri together. It is the time when we meet most, more so than any other month of the year.

Q: Ramadhan is supposed to teach Moslems about suffering and deprivation that the poor often experience. But people in big cities may have difficulties in feeling that spiritual experience. They often go on diets and they have air-conditioned offices and cars...

G: We (Moslems) have always believed that the essence of fasting is to promote the virtue of self-restraint. I can't see any reason why we have to reduce our routine activities during Ramadhan. My personal experience, for example, is that I always have a full teaching schedule during Ramadhan. My only spare time is after sahur (meal before sunrise) and before the dawn prayer, so I always have lots of work during the holy month.

Q: But some people reschedule their activities or even slow down their work...

G: People certainly adjust their activities, such as changing their eating schedules, and for some it takes a while to get used to this new rhythm. In the first few days, for example, some people probably sleep longer hours during the day because they stayed up late the previous night. But there are also people who simply become lazy. It happens everywhere.

Some people do not see the religious value of fasting, but they fast nevertheless and adjust their eating schedules. These people gain nothing, as Prophet Muhammad once said, they only gain hunger and thirst, but nothing else.

Q: But for some people in big cities fasting is made easier.

G: Certainly. There are air-conditioned buildings everywhere. And if you feel hot, you can always go to air-conditioned shopping malls, walk into a supermarket or watch a movie at a cinema. And before you know it, maghrib (sunset and time to break the fast) arrives.

But for them, Ramadhan simply becomes shifting their meal times. They are killing time until maghrib. They're not really all that different from children who fast only to anticipate the moment to break the fast.

Q: In the old days there were no modern facilities like what we have today.

G: Essentially, it's not all that different. People were killing time until maghrib. The difference today is there are a lot more things to do to pass the time. Those who fast for purposes other than religion will gain nothing spiritually.

Q: Who then should we blame? The person or the time?

G: The person. Time has no interest. Allah loses nothing. Fasting is essentially a personal interest. If you don't need anything from Allah, you don't have to fast. But if you do, you must play according to the rules. You can't just do only what suits you.

Q: What about those who spend the day working until maghrib?

G: The quality of fasting depends on your intention. If you see fasting as a way of going on a diet, you'll get the benefits of a diet. If you fast to impress your friends, you will impress your friends. If you fast in the name of Allah, you'll be rewarded likewise.

Q: So hanging around in malls while fasting is wrong then?

G: No. It's not wrong because Allah knows the maximum capacity of human beings. It is equally wrong if someone forces himself to fast without breaking it.

Q: What about casual workers, like construction workers, who have to fast in the middle of hot days?

G: Allah rewards his subjects accordingly.

These people may gain higher rewards for getting through the day fasting in very difficult conditions. For example, if most other people are given a score of 10 for fasting, construction workers could get a score of 700 or even seven million. As a saying of Prophet Muhammad goes, those who read the Holy Koran, even if they cannot read it properly, will be rewarded twice: once for reading it and the other for making the effort.