Fasting: 15 degrees, 18 degrees, no degrees, or ... ?
Farhad Shafti
I am reading articles and watching videos where some Muslims are so enthusiastically defend their views on whether 15 degrees or 18 degrees or X degrees (of sun below the horizon) or no degrees should be the base for considering the start of the fasting hour in the month of Ramadhan this year (in the North America and Europe).
On videos, some people appear to be so interested and excited about this that if you turn off the voice you can easily imagine that the person is defending the most crucial aspects of life and faith. In writings, you see so much detailed reasoning that you think one can get a PhD on this subject (and perhaps we already have PhDs in this). When you look at the comments on videos or online articles or hear people discussing the subject, you find heated debates where some people are prepared to accuse each other of dishonesty for choosing degree of X over the degree of Y!
In my times of solitude, I look up the Qur’an trying to understand all this, and I fail to understand it. I ask myself, let’s assume that the actual real fajr starts at X degree. Then let’s assume that a Muslim by mistake takes Y degree as the start of the fajr. Will God punish this person because of getting the degree wrong? The Qur’an tells me No! God requires us to do what is within our capability and does not demand us for something that is beyond our capability, he does not punish us for our innocent unintentional errors (2:286).
Then I ask myself, hang on, what the purpose of fasting is anyway? And I read in 2:183 that the purpose of fasting is piety (taqwa). And this leads me to try to see if there are the same levels of enthusiastic debates out there, on how to achieve piety, and I do not find many. In fact, I find that some people are so enthusiastic in defending their view on the degree of sun for fasting that they start personal attack on those who have a different view, and in this way work against their piety, which is the whole purpose of fasting!
I ask myself, how many times and how many hours have I looked to study which degree (if any) defines the fajr in the month of Ramadhan. Then I ask myself if I have spent at least half of this trying to learn something on how the month of Ramadhan and fasting can help with my piety!
The month of Ramadhan is coming. There are two types of inquiries that we should deal with:
Type A: inquiries like, exactly what time we should start fasting in Europe or the North America.
Type B: inquiries like, exactly how my fasting during this month can help with my piety.
My thinking is as follows:
We need an answer for both types of inquiries. However type A inquiries do not need to take too much of our time. We can simply go with the flow in our immediate community or just follow our basic understanding of the subject. God does not require us to do more. Type B relates to the whole purpose of fasting and what God values most (49:13). We need to be desperate in finding some reliable answers for the type B inquiries and we need to exhaust every resource available to us for this purpose.
If we are worried more about type A inquiries and less about type B inquiries, then we have simply lost the plot!
I am reading articles and watching videos where some Muslims are so enthusiastically defend their views on whether 15 degrees or 18 degrees or X degrees (of sun below the horizon) or no degrees should be the base for considering the start of the fasting hour in the month of Ramadhan this year (in the North America and Europe).
On videos, some people appear to be so interested and excited about this that if you turn off the voice you can easily imagine that the person is defending the most crucial aspects of life and faith. In writings, you see so much detailed reasoning that you think one can get a PhD on this subject (and perhaps we already have PhDs in this). When you look at the comments on videos or online articles or hear people discussing the subject, you find heated debates where some people are prepared to accuse each other of dishonesty for choosing degree of X over the degree of Y!
In my times of solitude, I look up the Qur’an trying to understand all this, and I fail to understand it. I ask myself, let’s assume that the actual real fajr starts at X degree. Then let’s assume that a Muslim by mistake takes Y degree as the start of the fajr. Will God punish this person because of getting the degree wrong? The Qur’an tells me No! God requires us to do what is within our capability and does not demand us for something that is beyond our capability, he does not punish us for our innocent unintentional errors (2:286).
Then I ask myself, hang on, what the purpose of fasting is anyway? And I read in 2:183 that the purpose of fasting is piety (taqwa). And this leads me to try to see if there are the same levels of enthusiastic debates out there, on how to achieve piety, and I do not find many. In fact, I find that some people are so enthusiastic in defending their view on the degree of sun for fasting that they start personal attack on those who have a different view, and in this way work against their piety, which is the whole purpose of fasting!
I ask myself, how many times and how many hours have I looked to study which degree (if any) defines the fajr in the month of Ramadhan. Then I ask myself if I have spent at least half of this trying to learn something on how the month of Ramadhan and fasting can help with my piety!
The month of Ramadhan is coming. There are two types of inquiries that we should deal with:
Type A: inquiries like, exactly what time we should start fasting in Europe or the North America.
Type B: inquiries like, exactly how my fasting during this month can help with my piety.
My thinking is as follows:
We need an answer for both types of inquiries. However type A inquiries do not need to take too much of our time. We can simply go with the flow in our immediate community or just follow our basic understanding of the subject. God does not require us to do more. Type B relates to the whole purpose of fasting and what God values most (49:13). We need to be desperate in finding some reliable answers for the type B inquiries and we need to exhaust every resource available to us for this purpose.
If we are worried more about type A inquiries and less about type B inquiries, then we have simply lost the plot!
