Ramadan, Fasting, and Piety

The Quranic reference to fasting (ashshiyaam) in Surah al-Baqarah does not explicitly mention Ramadan when introducing the obligation: “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting” (QS al-Baqarah [2]: 183). This is because Islamic tradition has firmly established that obligatory fasting is exclusively during the month of Ramadan, as evidenced in the hadith describing the pillars of Islam, which states “and fasting of Ramadan” (HR Bukhari-Muslim).

The term ashshiyaam or ashshaum literally means “to abstain” or “to refrain”, specifically from hunger, thirst, and all actions that invalidate the fast, such as marital relations and similar acts.

What is particularly noteworthy about the practice of fasting is that it requires believers to refrain from what is fundamentally permissible. Eating, drinking, and conjugal relations are ordinarily lawful in Islam. However, during the fasting hours between dawn and sunset, these permissible acts become forbidden.

Within this framework lies a test of obedience. Fasting essentially poses the question: if you can restrain yourself from that which is lawful whilst fasting, how can you justify engaging in that which is unlawful?

From this understanding emerges the scholars’ definition of taqwa (piety and God-consciousness). A servant will never attain the station of the God-conscious until he distances himself from the permissible, thereby ensuring greater caution regarding the forbidden. As the saying goes: “A slave will not attain the status of the God-conscious until he withdraws from the lawful so as to be further from the unlawful.”