On the Mysterious Allure of the Fast
A warm and happy start of Ramadan to all, and for the Muslims, I hope the fast is proceeding well and that you are not, as I am, dealing with splitting headaches associated with caffeine withdrawal. (I really have to get off of that stuff).
In any event, given that we are at this time of heightened ritual attention, I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to discuss that aspect of shari'a that I tend to address least--the so-called ibadat, or acts of worship, the first part of any exegesis on shari'a, which does lead folks like Abdullahi An Naim to make the bold and thoughtful claim that when we talk about shari'a, we aren't talking about "law" at all, but rather a normative system, divorced from state governance. The blog does not of course take this approach.
It's not that I think An Naim is wrong, he is a friend and an ideological ally, it's just that the Islamists don't agree with him (he would agree with that) and so usually when I look at questions of Islam and law, I'm examining something different than he is. He is looking at how shari'a should be viewed, and I am looking at how it actually operates in the modern Muslim legal construct. But an admitted weakness of my approach is it tends to render shari'a more legal than it is; that is, it downplays those important aspects of shari'a that are simply not legal and cannot be understood as legal. But as I have said before, I am a lawyer, and my task is to describe, debate and engage shari'a from my legal vision, admitting that other approaches might shed light in other areas. I won't pretend in this brief foray into the ibadat that my own vision might predominate, even in an area that really is not about "law" at all. Wa amma ba'ad.
One of the most curious aspects of Muslim ritual practice to me is how, for those Muslims who are not fully practicing, the fasting comes first, or pretty early, right after not eating pork and definitely before prayer. Here's my own list of things Muslims do when they practice, from the least religious to the most:
1. Use religious services for weddings, funerals, holidays and the like.
2. Abstain from pork
3. Fasting Ramadan
4. Paying alms
5. Hajj (in old age, at which point all of these things get followed).
6. Abstain from alcohol
7. Friday Prayer
8. Regular prayers
9. Other stuff (grow a beard, wear a veil, memorize Qur'an, whatever).
So this means that I know quite a few half practicing Muslims who fast and do not pray, even during the fasting month, but I've never met one who prayed and did not fast, unless there was a medical reason or whatever. In a way, this strikes me as odd, because fasting is by far the most difficult of the rituals to follow. Hajj I've done, and that's pretty hard, but once in your life for three weeks, you can handle it. Prayer is five minutes five times a day (or ten minutes three times a day for us Shi'a basically), alms makes one feel good heck growing a beard, which is pretty far down the list, is easier than fasting. Why is it then that fasting has such allure, such that everyone practically fasts, when it's the hardest of the rituals to follow?
I dispense, as a realist will always, with traditional doctrine and foundational text as not providing any answer to questions of this sort. You go to doctrine, or the Qur'an and Sunna, and you can find things that might explain how important fasting is, and others will talk about how important prayer is, and so forth. The idea that among these various mandatory activities some sort of preference sheet is laid out as per above is silly, it is not. Ask a scholar, and he'll be puzzled. I did ask a scholar the other day about relative importance of fasting and prayer, out of curiosity (claiming it was not my question, but someone else's), a Moqtada man. "Well, let's see," he said, "in America which one is more important, not injuring people or not burning their homes?" I think the latter, but the point is well taken, among those who think you aren't supposed to be doing this stuff, it's all bad.
I have heard Friday prayer leaders suggest fasting is the locus of some hypocrisy; that is, it's easy to pretend to fast, easier than pretending to pray (I think that's debatable, but anyway), and so people are likely to claim to do it and then cheat. I personally have a hard time accepting there is THAT much double dealing going on, particularly among people who have no problem admitting they rarely pray. What's the point of volunteering that and then fasting to demonstrate false piety? And it would be so many people engaged in such an elaborate deception--it seems hard to fathom.
Instead, I think a few things might be going on. First, as a child, adulthood is signified by beginning the fast. You grab three year old children and show them to pray (knowing they'll wander off, but you figure they get something out of it before that happens), but you don't encourage children to fast. Parents often forbid it, in fact, for obvious reasons. Only the adults fast, which then creates a certain desire on the part of children as they age to be treated as an adult, and to fast. I think those sorts of associational notions, that as an adult it is my duty to fast, not only as an act of worship, but to signify adulthood, remain quite strong throughout life. Pop psychology admittedly, but still.
Second, an entire cultural practice has been built around the fast. In the Middle East, everything nearly shuts down during the day. Work hours are curtailed. Mornings are later, and nights much, much longer (we visit relatives well past midnight, shopping malls are open until at least 1 am then too). Puritans feel that the spirit of Ramadan has been destroyed in the process (imagine fundamentalist Christians with all the hullaballoo surrounding Christmas--same deal) but the festivities also help to perpetuate and strengthen the observance of Ramadan. It's almost a month long party at night, with some ritual bit in the day you have to do of course, but the day part justifies all of these rich festivities that everyone looks forward too. naturally American Muslims don't have that luxury, but we don't live in a bubble either. IN determining what is important, we are influenced by coreligionist brethren abroad.
Naturally there is a feedback that happens, as children begin to associate fasting with adulthood, as adults and children enjoy the month with its unique festivities and rituals, more people fast, and the more people fast, the more others are encouraged to do so. If you are a doctor and all your patients fast, you start to think you should too. And so the practice grows that way as well.
Finally (and you knew I would say this), this set of rituals and activities is truly unique and peculiar to Islam, and a Muslim polity seeking to define itself according to its own set of norms and values, seeking to resist the uniquitous pull of Western mores into its social order, would naturally be attracted to it. Of course the five daily prayers serve that function too in a sense, calls to prayer so often are clearly Muslim and just as clearly ubiquitous also in the Muslim world, but Ramadan is just worlds apart from the West. It's been ridiculed as such--as interfering with productivity, as ill befitting modernity, as simply too hard to be sensible, but that only strengthens Muslim resolve, to be different, to set ourselves apart, a shining city on a hill if you will. Thus, whether it's the acts of worship or the rules of commerce, the desire to be different is a powerful influence, particularly in the Muslim world.
Just my random thoughts on the matter.
HAH
In any event, given that we are at this time of heightened ritual attention, I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to discuss that aspect of shari'a that I tend to address least--the so-called ibadat, or acts of worship, the first part of any exegesis on shari'a, which does lead folks like Abdullahi An Naim to make the bold and thoughtful claim that when we talk about shari'a, we aren't talking about "law" at all, but rather a normative system, divorced from state governance. The blog does not of course take this approach.
It's not that I think An Naim is wrong, he is a friend and an ideological ally, it's just that the Islamists don't agree with him (he would agree with that) and so usually when I look at questions of Islam and law, I'm examining something different than he is. He is looking at how shari'a should be viewed, and I am looking at how it actually operates in the modern Muslim legal construct. But an admitted weakness of my approach is it tends to render shari'a more legal than it is; that is, it downplays those important aspects of shari'a that are simply not legal and cannot be understood as legal. But as I have said before, I am a lawyer, and my task is to describe, debate and engage shari'a from my legal vision, admitting that other approaches might shed light in other areas. I won't pretend in this brief foray into the ibadat that my own vision might predominate, even in an area that really is not about "law" at all. Wa amma ba'ad.
One of the most curious aspects of Muslim ritual practice to me is how, for those Muslims who are not fully practicing, the fasting comes first, or pretty early, right after not eating pork and definitely before prayer. Here's my own list of things Muslims do when they practice, from the least religious to the most:
1. Use religious services for weddings, funerals, holidays and the like.
2. Abstain from pork
3. Fasting Ramadan
4. Paying alms
5. Hajj (in old age, at which point all of these things get followed).
6. Abstain from alcohol
7. Friday Prayer
8. Regular prayers
9. Other stuff (grow a beard, wear a veil, memorize Qur'an, whatever).
So this means that I know quite a few half practicing Muslims who fast and do not pray, even during the fasting month, but I've never met one who prayed and did not fast, unless there was a medical reason or whatever. In a way, this strikes me as odd, because fasting is by far the most difficult of the rituals to follow. Hajj I've done, and that's pretty hard, but once in your life for three weeks, you can handle it. Prayer is five minutes five times a day (or ten minutes three times a day for us Shi'a basically), alms makes one feel good heck growing a beard, which is pretty far down the list, is easier than fasting. Why is it then that fasting has such allure, such that everyone practically fasts, when it's the hardest of the rituals to follow?
I dispense, as a realist will always, with traditional doctrine and foundational text as not providing any answer to questions of this sort. You go to doctrine, or the Qur'an and Sunna, and you can find things that might explain how important fasting is, and others will talk about how important prayer is, and so forth. The idea that among these various mandatory activities some sort of preference sheet is laid out as per above is silly, it is not. Ask a scholar, and he'll be puzzled. I did ask a scholar the other day about relative importance of fasting and prayer, out of curiosity (claiming it was not my question, but someone else's), a Moqtada man. "Well, let's see," he said, "in America which one is more important, not injuring people or not burning their homes?" I think the latter, but the point is well taken, among those who think you aren't supposed to be doing this stuff, it's all bad.
I have heard Friday prayer leaders suggest fasting is the locus of some hypocrisy; that is, it's easy to pretend to fast, easier than pretending to pray (I think that's debatable, but anyway), and so people are likely to claim to do it and then cheat. I personally have a hard time accepting there is THAT much double dealing going on, particularly among people who have no problem admitting they rarely pray. What's the point of volunteering that and then fasting to demonstrate false piety? And it would be so many people engaged in such an elaborate deception--it seems hard to fathom.
Instead, I think a few things might be going on. First, as a child, adulthood is signified by beginning the fast. You grab three year old children and show them to pray (knowing they'll wander off, but you figure they get something out of it before that happens), but you don't encourage children to fast. Parents often forbid it, in fact, for obvious reasons. Only the adults fast, which then creates a certain desire on the part of children as they age to be treated as an adult, and to fast. I think those sorts of associational notions, that as an adult it is my duty to fast, not only as an act of worship, but to signify adulthood, remain quite strong throughout life. Pop psychology admittedly, but still.
Second, an entire cultural practice has been built around the fast. In the Middle East, everything nearly shuts down during the day. Work hours are curtailed. Mornings are later, and nights much, much longer (we visit relatives well past midnight, shopping malls are open until at least 1 am then too). Puritans feel that the spirit of Ramadan has been destroyed in the process (imagine fundamentalist Christians with all the hullaballoo surrounding Christmas--same deal) but the festivities also help to perpetuate and strengthen the observance of Ramadan. It's almost a month long party at night, with some ritual bit in the day you have to do of course, but the day part justifies all of these rich festivities that everyone looks forward too. naturally American Muslims don't have that luxury, but we don't live in a bubble either. IN determining what is important, we are influenced by coreligionist brethren abroad.
Naturally there is a feedback that happens, as children begin to associate fasting with adulthood, as adults and children enjoy the month with its unique festivities and rituals, more people fast, and the more people fast, the more others are encouraged to do so. If you are a doctor and all your patients fast, you start to think you should too. And so the practice grows that way as well.
Finally (and you knew I would say this), this set of rituals and activities is truly unique and peculiar to Islam, and a Muslim polity seeking to define itself according to its own set of norms and values, seeking to resist the uniquitous pull of Western mores into its social order, would naturally be attracted to it. Of course the five daily prayers serve that function too in a sense, calls to prayer so often are clearly Muslim and just as clearly ubiquitous also in the Muslim world, but Ramadan is just worlds apart from the West. It's been ridiculed as such--as interfering with productivity, as ill befitting modernity, as simply too hard to be sensible, but that only strengthens Muslim resolve, to be different, to set ourselves apart, a shining city on a hill if you will. Thus, whether it's the acts of worship or the rules of commerce, the desire to be different is a powerful influence, particularly in the Muslim world.
Just my random thoughts on the matter.
HAH
Ramadan Mubarak to you and all the readers. I really was attracted to this post and it was really interesting. i would like to add one more point to your points which is : for not fasting there is a punishment system, i.e. if you do not fast(without a reason) you should fast 60 extra days for each day or feed 60 poor one. on the other hand, there is no such thing for prayer and if you did not pray, what all you have to do is pray it again you do not need to pray extra 60 prayer.
I have another point which is not related to subject but i am mentioning it so there will be no confusion. you said regarding the prayers 3 times a day for Shia it might look that shia have 3 prayers and other Muslim 5, which is not the case. Shia pray 5 prayers but in three times and they are allowed to pray it in 5 times too.
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Thanks and Ramadan Mubarak to you.
Both your points are excellent. I hadn't considered the doctrinal point that there is an explicit makeup for the fast that is more severe. As for the Shi'a, yes to dispel confusion you are right. The Shi'a permit the combining of the noon and afternoon prayers, and the evening and night prayers, (By "combine" I mean do one, finish it, and then right away do the other). As a result, they pray the same five prayers, but at three times. As a Shi'i I did not mean to suggest otherwise and I appreciate your clearing that up. I would say while Shi'a are ALLOWED to pray it in five occasions as Sunnis do, as a practical matter I've never seen this happen, the Shia only read the Adhan three times and as a near absolute uniform rule just pray the five prayers during those three times as per above.
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Extremely interesting article. Knowing a number of non-practicing Muslims, who continue to observe Ramadan, the 'allure' of the fast has always perplexed me.
Having considered it further I think convenience plays a large role. A great deal of people who are not devout, yet who chose to fast, are not ready to make a full commitment to living a religious lifestyle. While fasting the month of Ramadan is indeed difficult it is non-permanent and not something that has to be incorporated into one's everyday life, such as abstaining from alcohol, premarital/extramarital sex, observing prayers and hijab would.
There is also strong social, cultural, and community factors that play a big role in the one's choice to observe the fast. There is something very heartwarming about sharing iftar with close friends and family regardless of one's piety. Especially for people who grew up fasting and who've relocated to North America, it is a way to reconnect culturally once a year.
Psychologically I think the burden of commitment to fasting for one month is far more alluring then to pray every day, fives times a day, for the rest of your life; even if this only amounts to only 25 minutes a day. There is also the guilt that would comes with incorporating something like prayer or hijab into one's daily life and simultaneously retaining unislamic behaviors, which the people who chose to only fast Ramadan won't have any qualms about because they can make a clean break between their Ramadan lifestyle and their non-Ramadan lifestyle, because all in all they are not 'practicing'. And, these people who fear long term religious commitment probably also view partaking in daily rituals as going hand-in-hand with a higher standard of behavior, religiously speaking, and if people can't obtain this higher standard there is a strong sense of guilt...and most people hate feeling guilty.
So, all in all, for the less devout's mental well being it is easier to compartmentalize and separate Ramadan from real life. And, further lessening guilt, it provides a non-lifestyle changing forum to observe and keep in touch with one's culture rather then being the prodigal son who becomes completely westernized.
A final note. From another point of view, if one is unsure of the religion/God question Ramadan has sufficiently cultural and community based aspects that makes observing it have other purposes and appeals. On the other hand, many other practices much more overtly revolve around worshiping/obeying God.
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