sunriseThree Degrees of Fasting:

 

Know that, in the view of the verifiers, fasting has three degrees. The common people fast by refraining from food, drink, and sexual intercourse from morning to sunset prayer.

The elect fast by preserving the seven bodily members from sins and acts of disobedience. They prevent the tongue from lying, obscenity and backbiting; the eye from looking with caprice and appetite; the ear from listening to nonsense, obscenity, idle talk and the like; and the hand, foot and other members from acts made unlawful by the Shariah. The divine revelation gives news of this meaning. The hearing, the sight, the heartall these shall be questioned

[17:36]. Mustafa—God bless him—said, “Five things break the fast—lying, backbiting, slander, ungodly oaths, and looking with appetite.”

The elect of the elect fast by examining their thoughts and preventing their innermost consciousness from paying attention to anything other than God. These are the people of poverty, and their capital and provisions for wayfaring on the path to God are nothingness. . . .

The Easy Roads of Sayf al-Din

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