Fasting for half a day
Mo
M Akbar writes in his book Living Islam that one Shia innovation is
fasting for just half a day during Ramadan..
Does this mean that after the heavy meal at sunrise they have to wait
till lunchtime for their next one ?
D. Beatty
M Akbar, if you quoted him correctly, is very much mistaken. Shia fast
full day like any other Muslim. And we do not take heavy meal at sunrise
as the fasting time has already started them, if we eat breakfast in the
morning it is done about 1/2 hour before fajr prayer time. And we break
the full-day fast when time for maghrib has set in. Refer to any reliable
author on shia instead of this baloney.
"Put your trust in that person who has fear of Allah" a hadith
"And pray in the small hours of the morning an additional prayer (of
spiritual profit) for thee. Soon will they Lord raise thee to a station
of praise and glory." Quran 17:79 about Namaz e Shab
Shahryar Razmafrooz
In the name of Him, the most High,
Mo wrote:
>
> M Akbar writes in his book Living Islam that one Shia innovation is
> fasting for just half a day during Ramadan..
> Does this mean that after the heavy meal at sunrise they have to wait
> till lunchtime for their next one ?
Hi,
No there is no such innovation in Shia.
What there is, however, is the custom (NOT religion) that some families
follow to bring up their children.
The way it works is that sometimes the really young children for whom
fasting is more than a few years too early are already very enthusiastic
about fasting and want to copy their parents. Now the parents do not
want
to kill the enthusiasm in the child, on the other hand the child may be
way too young for fasting a whole day. So they allow the child to fast
for half a day and make him/her feel like a grown up muslim.
Also, by doing this, they keep the thirst of real fasting alive in the
kid so that when s/he grows up s/he will see it as yet another
challenge.
But more importantly the kid gets used to some concept of fasting
and becomes sort of prepared for the real thing.
Again this is a cultural/customary act and has nothing to do with shia.
I have seen this being done in Iran but have no idea whether people in
other countries would do the same.
And to give you a clear answer on Shia:
NO There is absolutely no such innovation in Shia Islam.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Shahryar
Mo
>.I have seen this being done in Iran but have no idea whether people in
other countries would do the same.<,
Precisely . This must be a Shia innvoation otherwise the people of
Iran would not dare to practise it.
D. Beatty
Gee, how nice you are to delete the rest of the post which said that Shias
DO NOT fast for half a day, but encourage non-baligh children to fast for
half a day during the month of Ramadhan so that they feel they are
participating. THEN comes the sentence you left saying that this
practice, OF LETTING NON BALIGH CHILDREN fast for half the day was seen by
the poster only in Iran. I will add that i have seen in done by Khoja
(East African and Indian) Shias do this practice as well. All baligh
Shias are supposed to fast full day, what you are asserting is 100% false.
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"The real Brother is the one who helps in difficult times" a hadith
Sheik
This half-day fast is quite commonly used by the (Sunni) Muslims in
Southeast Asia as training for their young children before they reach legal
fasting age, to train them on the concept of fasting . But it is clearly
done in the understanding that it is only a practice run, and the correct
fast is a full-day one.
This is interesting because the Muslims of Southeast Asia have historically
had very little exposure to Shiism, and hence we can obviate the
possibility that it is a Shiite element.
So, even if the Shiites have a half-day "practice" fast for kids, it is not
unique to them.
Sheik
Singapore