Ali Ataie – Fasting in the JudeoChristian Tradition A Zaytuna Faculty Ramadan Reflection
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AI: Transcript ©
This is Ali Ata'i.
I'm coming to you from the new Zaytuna
campus,
a place where teaching and learning will happen
of sacred knowledge,
by the tawfiq of Allah
I'm I'm here to speak to you about
fasting
in the Judeo Christian tradition. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says
That fasting has been prescribed upon you just
as it was prescribed upon those before you.
And the mufasirim, the exigits of the Quran
here say that people who came before us,
this is Ahlul Kitab. And Ahlul Kitab literally
means the people of the book. And the
word bible in Greek, tan bablion, means literally
the book. And this is important.
Now, there's an axiom amongst the ilemmah that
says the merit of a thing is known
by its objective, and the objective is
to increase us in taqwa.
And part of having taqwa is guarding against
disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this involves
what's known as mushahada,
being conscious that Allah
Allah is indeed watching us and also muraqabah
to be vigilant of his watchful eye as
it were and to,
watch our behavior and and to watch what
we say and how we think and how
we interact with one another.
So this is something that's mentioned in the
books of Ahl al Kitab as well.
And that part of having taqwa
is,
not only being conscious of God, but to
be conscious of God's creation. And when we're
conscious of God's creation, we can empathize
with people who don't eat on a daily
basis. And when our empathy increases, we have
compassion.
And when we have compassion, then we have
the attributes of all of the prophets of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So fasting
is not something that comes out of thin
air as it were. It's not something that
Islam or the Quran invented. It has deep
Abrahamic roots. In fact, the word for fasting
in Hebrew and in Aramaic respectively, which are
the languages of
Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them, respectively,
is also Psalm. It's pronounced the same, Psalm.
And this is mentioned dozens of times
in the Old Testament. For example, in Psalm
3513,
David writes,
but Somnafshi,
that through fasting I have humbled my soul.
So there are deep Abrahamic roots in fasting.
There are also typologies of the prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, in the bible as
well related to later to later to Qadr,
the the night of power which was in
the month of Ramadan. If you read the
book of Isaiah chapter 29 verse 12, it
says the book is given to 1, lo
yada'asefer,
who doesn't know a book who is unlettered.
And it shall be said to him, qara
in the Hebrew language, which which is the
exact cognate
of the imperative Iqra, which is in the
Quran. And he shall answer, lo yada'ati
safer. I don't know the book. And this
happened during the month of Ramadan.
We also know that when the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, he was in Medina, he noticed
that the the Jewish elements in Medina, the
Bani Israel, they were fasting on Yom I
Ashura.
This is the 10th of Muharram, the 10th
day of the first,
month of the Islamic calendar. And back then,
this day was referred to as Asarab Bitishri
by the Jews, which is also obviously
the the 10th day of the 1st month,
of the Hebrew calendar. Now these days used
to match back then, and this day is
also known as Yom Kippur. Now in the
Christian,
calendar and the Christian era, the Jews began
to use an intercalary month, so these days
no longer match. But back then, Yom Kippur
and Yomi Ashura
were perfectly aligned. And the prophet Muhammad, peace
be upon him,
he also encouraged Muslims to fast on this
day in commemoration,
of the events that happen in the lifetime
of Musa alaihis salam.
So this is interesting that Muslims actually fast
on the authentic on the authentic Yom Kippur.
In Matthew chapter 4, we are told that
Isa alaihis salam, Jesus Christ peace be upon
him, he would go to the wilderness to
fast before the gospel was revealed to him.
And the Greek says something interesting. It
says He was fasting 40 days 40 nights
in the wilderness and, of course, devout Christians
will commemorate this fast. This is called the
Lent from the German Lenz, which means springtime.
In Latin, it's called the Quadragesima,
which literally means 40.
This is a 40 day fast. The Roman
Catholics will begin fasting
Lent on Ash Wednesday and they'll stop on
Holy Thursday,
if you count the Sundays. And there's difference
of opinion whether you count the Sundays
or not. Now the most dominant opinion in
regard of how to fast for Christians in
this time is the opinion of Thomas Aquinas,
who basically said, generally, you stay away from
meat, eggs, and dairy. But there are other
opinions as well. Socrates
Scholasticus, who was a 4th century Christian,
historian,
he said at his time, some Christians would
not eat or drink all day long until
evening, which is very similar to the Muslim
fast. He said some would eat he would
not eat and drink,
until midday. Some would only eat and drink
bread and water. So it's a difference of
opinion. But the the dominant opinion here belongs
to,
Thomas Aquinas. And, of course,
Esai, salam, Jesus Christ, as understood by the
gospel of Matthew, his 40 day fast in
the wilderness was only to mimic what had
happened,
with the prophet Moses, peace be upon him,
when he was on Mount Sinai and he
fasted for 40 days 40 nights. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says in the Quran
that we had appointed for Moses
40 nights.
And the great,
medieval
Jewish
systematic theologian,
Nachmanides, he says very clearly that when Moses
was on the mountain for 40 days 40
nights, he did not eat nor drink. And
for Nachmanides,
That's sort of a foreshadowing
of the pneumatically oriented bodies that all of
us are going to be resurrected into and
what he calls the olam hava or,
the world to come, al akhira. So the
number 40 is very significant
in sacred history and we know that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was in his 40th
year when he went to the cave,
on on Leite al Qadr. He went to
the the mountain of light.
Forty is a holy number. The probably the
the equivalent of the sumo theologica
in the Islamic tradition is the Ihya al
Umideen by Abuhamad al Ghazali, probably the most
comprehensive exposition
of classical Islam ever written. And there's 40
books. The ulama used to say if you
don't have the Ihya, you should sell your
lihyah, sell your beard to get to the
ikhya. So the 40 the 40 days is
something that is,
confirmed and the prophet we know was was
protected from idolatry
for those 40 years.
Now there is also something called the Didache,
which is a very interesting document. The Didache
in Greek literally means teaching.
Most scholars of the New Testament will date
the Didache to about 100 or 120 of
of the common era right around the time
when the gospel of John was written. And
most scholars will actually say that the original
Didache was written in the Syriac language, which
was the language of Jesus Christ, peace be
upon him. This document was actually lost,
until 18/73
when it was rediscovered
in a monastery. The Didache represents the teaching
of the actual disciples
of Jesus to gentile Christians. And one of
the interesting things that mentions in the Didache
is that Christians from this very early period,
they used to fast twice a week. And
in Luke chapter 18,
we are told in the parable of the
Pharisee and the tax collector that the Jews
at the time of Esai
they would also fast twice a week because
that's one of the things that the Pharisee
says. He says
I fast twice a week. And he was
saying that because he was bragging about himself.
Now we know that the Prophet
he also would regularly fast twice a week.
And according to some of the, schools of
jurisprudence, this is considered a mustahab or recommended
fast. He would fast on Mondays Thursdays.
Also mimicking what the Jews had been doing,
since the time of Isa and what the
Christians were doing as well in the early
part
of, the the first 3 or 4 centuries
of Christian history. The prophet, peace be upon
him, was asked why do you fast on
Monday? And he said,
This is the day that I was born.
Why is he fasting on Thursday? He said
on Thursday, this is when the deeds of
the sons and daughters of Adam are presented
to their Lord. And I wanna be fasting
when my deeds are presented to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Of course, also in Matthew chapter
6,
Isa alaihi salam, during the Sermon on the
Mount, he gives teachings with respect to fasting
and he says something interesting here. He
He says He says when you fast, don't
do it like the hypocrites.
How do the hypocrites do it according to
Islam,
they walk around groggy and tired so that
people will think they're fasting and then people
will come to them and say, hey. Are
you fasting, brother? They say, yes. I'm fasting.
Oh, masha'Allah. You're such a pious person. So
he says he says, wash your face and
anoint thy head. And then he says,
so that your father right? And here, what
he means by father is not his literal
father. This is very important. When Isa, alaihis
salam, taught the Bani Israel how to pray,
he said,
our father who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name. He didn't mean this in a
literal sense. This was not something that was
orthodox Christianity
until the church synods, ecumenical
councils in the 4th century. In the 1st
century, when Jesus refers to God as his
father, he means that he is the rub.
He is the he is the master. He
is the sustainer. He is the one that
we have a personal relationship with.
So he says your father in heaven, your
Your father in heaven will give you in
secret,
right? So this reminds us of a beautiful
hadith Qudsi, which the Prophet Muhammad
says that Allah
says
Every action of the son of Adam is
for him except fasting. For
for that is mine
and I will and I will reward my
servant for that. This is something that no
one knows we're doing except Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And, of course, there are health benefits
to fasting, reducing your caloric intake, reduce the
risk of obesity, which is the number one
killer of Americans,
which is really interesting is doctor Mark p
Mattson,
who is the chief of neurosciences
at at the National Institute of Aging. He
says that intermittent fasting. What does that mean?
That means fasting every other day
has significant
health benefits
for you, reducing the bad cholesterol
in your blood, reducing the the risk of
heart disease and cancer, slowing the aging process.
And, of course, we know from the prophet
that the most beloved type of fasting to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is this intermittent fasting,
which is called the fast of Dawood
These are just things some of the things
to think about when we engage with the
non Muslim friends and neighbors about fasting that
this is something that is found in their
traditions as well and this is something that
is a unifying factor for all of us.