Fiqh of Siyaam: Introduction

Bismillah, Alhamdulillah Was Salaat us Salaamu Ala’ Rasoolillahi Sal Allahu Alayhi Wa Sallam

Indeed Allah has created mankind for the greatest purpose, which is that they worship Allah alone in all matters without any partners. Allâh has said in the Quran:

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ

And I (Allâh) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone). [Surah Adh Dhariyaat (51) V. 56]

A way one worships Allah is by submitting to the will of Allah by obeying His commands and refraining from that which He has prohibited. And among the acts of worship that Allah has commanded His servant and worshipper is the act of fasting during the month of Ramadhan. As Allah has mentioned in the Quran:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

“O you who believe! Observing As-Sawm (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqoon (the pious)” [Surah Al Baqarah (2) V. 183]

A true believer observes the month of Ramadhan by trying his utmost to take the most benefit form it by learning and putting into practice actions that please Allâh and bring the believer close to Him during this month. Many times a Muslim may observe a fast during this month without knowing some of the fundamental obligations and conditions surrounding it, some of the prohibitions and recommended acts surrounding it. The purpose of this book is to do just that. It is to inform the Muslim about what the fast is, what are its conditions, what are its requirements, what are its prohibitions and permissions. It will also inform the Muslim about the liked and disliked of fasting and the times at which it is prohibited. It helps the Muslim to understand what he does when he either forgets to fast or misses a day of fasting during Ramadhan.

The following material deals mainly with the fiqh (rulings) surrounding the act of fasting. The material contained in these posts is derived from part of a series of lectures on fiqh by Brother Salim Morgan. The main source of the material contained that Brother Salim Morgan relied upon was a book by the name of “Manar As Sabeel Fi Sharh Ad Daleel“. Ad-Daleel is a matn, literally meaning text, in our context it is an extremely abbreviated text in fiqh. These mutoon (plural for matn) were usually only 50 – 100 pages and were memorized by students of traditional knowledge. Ad-Daleel dates from early Eleventh Century A.H. and of the Hanbalee Madhab. Traditional Hanbalee students of knowledge used to memorize Ad Daleel first so that they may not be overwhelmed by the amount of fiqh that needed to be memorized or learnt overall. Upon this they would sit with their shuyookh and learn them step by step with the proofs. In this book to Ad Daleel we add the commentary wrapped around this text called “Manar As-Sabeel“, which was written in the late Thirteenth century A.H. by Shaykh Ibraheem ibn Duwaiyan (d. 1353 AH) . This commentary on the original text, if one wishes to buy the Arabic explanation of Ad-Daleel then it is found in three volumes by the title of “Manar As-Sabeel Fi Sharh Ad-Daleel” published by Dar Ihia al-Turath al-Arabi-Libanon. On top of this, Brother Salim Morgan also included footnotes derived from a book called “Irwa’ Al-Ghaleel” by Shaykh Nasir Ad-Deen Al-Albaanee, the Muhaddith and Shaykh Al Hadith of the 20th century. If one is serious about learning the Islamic fiqh then he/she is encouraged to memorize the table of contents or the actual ruling of each section to get the message of the text.

I pray to Allah that these posts bring benefit to the reader and help him make the best of his fasting during the month of Ramadhan and his voluntary fasts.May the Peace and Blessings of Allâh be upon the Prophet (sall Allâhu’ alayhi wa sallam), his family, his companions, and his Ummah until the Day of Judgement.