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Which Religions Fast And Why (#Ramadan)

Who else is fasting and why? As Muslims near the end of another 30-day fasting season, let's have a look at other world religions...

Who else is fasting and why?

As Muslims near the end of another 30-day fasting season, let's have a look at other world religions for whom fasting is an integral part of their religious heritage. Book a trip to Turkey to see how the Muslims celebrate Ramadan!

Fasting means different things - actions and behaviors - for the world religions, but generally, it means the act of abstaining from food, drink, smoking, profane languages, sexual intercourse, and some religions even include donating money and food to the charity. Fasting can be done individually on a personal level, or involves a large group of people and becomes a festival to celebrate their religious history. 

Here is the list of 4 religions that support fasting and the reasons as to why they fast.

MUSLIMS: Islam perhaps the religion that takes fasting the most seriously with Ramadan as the biggest festival for fasting and praying activities.

The most important reason to fast for Muslims is to cleanse their bodies to present themselves to God, seek for His pleasure and forgiveness for all their sins. Muslims argue that food, drink and other humanly desires get in the way of one's devotion towards God, and preventing him to get closer to his Creator.

Therefore, by getting rid of them, one can dedicate himself wholly and completely to his God. Moreover, through fasting, people can also learn and develop many valuable characteristics such as patience, punctuality, self-control, and their capability to cope with difficult conditions so that they can become better people and better deserve the love of God.

HINDUS: Hinduism/Brahma is also very big on fasting with various fasting festivals all year round. In Hindu, the rules for fasting are a little flexible and can be done on an individual level.

Fasting in Hinduism indicates a person's willpower to sacrifice the body's needs to foster his spiritual growth by improving his concentration on meditation or worship. Hinduism also believes that many diseases and damages to one's body come from harmful substances in the digestive system. Hence, by fasting, one can purify himself, put his body to rest, and become healthier.

BUDDHISM: For Buddhists, fasting signifies the purification of the body, and the removals of earthy desires of people before they can embark on a spiritual journey to enter the Samadhi concentration. For monks and serious practitioners, fasting means absolute restraint from eating so that they can concentrate on their meditation and free their minds from coarse thoughts and greedy concerns.

For general practitioners, they can choose to fast during some certain days of the month, especially on the full moon and new moon days, and stay away from meat and other animal-originated products. This is to show their determination to stay away from selfish desires, save the planet and all living creatures, and control their own greed.

MORMONS: Mormon has a mandatory Fast Sunday, which is usually the first Monday of the month, in which practitioners are encouraged to fast for two consecutive meals. Fasting in Mormon is considered a commandment, to commemorate God's own sacrifice for the people, and through fasting, people can create a closer relationship with God and deeply understand and appreciate His love.

Fasting is also a tribute to remind Mormons of how much luckier they are compared to people who have to struggle for food and other necessities in life. In a time of hardship such as facing with illness and career challenges, individuals or a family can hold a specially fasting events to pray to God, and seek for His answers.
+ Pictured: Salt Lake Temple

Regardless of their purposes, some fasting festivals are not only important religious events, but also interesting cultural attractions. In a country like Turkey where more than 99% of the population are registered as Muslims, Ramadan is a big event to draw thousands of local and foreign people's attention. If tourists from other countries would like to see how Turkish Muslims celebrate their festival, they should obtain Turkey visas, book the tickets and plan their trip now!

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Turkey 8006376252115925566

Post a Comment

  1. nice tour and travel wallpaper Gallsource

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rubina Ghoor Ansari23 Aug 2014, 13:34:00

    Subhan Allah awesome. Just learnt about biodynamic method of growing food and way of living. This method incorporates all four kingdoms, human, animal, plant and the soil as a living organism together with the cosmos; moon, stars, planets all connected to Ya Badi' [ The Source/Beginner] Allah.

    The food we eat affects our thoughts, emotions, the physical body at cellular and genetic level and ultimately our consciousness of Allah, The Almighty.

    To listen to more on this you can go to the dropbox link below and listen to the talks on segment 2 from the 31st July 2014 up to the 21 August 2014. May Allah help us to live our lives the way He intended for us to live. Ameen.

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jgeyoeflnc9o549/ExNQZQP-ta

    ReplyDelete
  3. please send me the arabic word for natural resources & primary materials ( please make sure that one word for each) - not like
    موارد الطبيعية

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  4. great very useful jazakallahu khayr

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  8. I am a revert to Islam and Alhamdulilah I found your website. After being far from Islam for many years I feel relief reading articles like this because this is the Islam I love. Thank you.

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  9. Thanks for the nice collection of 10 Quranic Ayaths in order to show the importance of Environment for everyone (Muslims and non Muslims). It will help the world understand how caring we are for the environment hence it will improve the image of Muslims among other religions. If you would like to understand the Ayaths or would like to Learn Reading the ayaths of Quran through Qaida, then Download Noorani Qaida. It is a free of cost application.

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  10. aw this is lovely mashallah

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  11. AOA ,without any doubt we all know that Quran has all thing in it.Every part of land and water is covered in quran.and also there are many hadith books references which also tell the same thing..well i recomand you all to you must download following app so that you can also learn from Hadiths.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quranreading.sahihmuslim

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  12. fig men are superior allahu akbar

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  14. Thank you for this information
    Zaufishan, very interesting stuff. I actually 1st came across you on
    Google when I was doing a serach for Islam and the environment. The reason for this, is that I work in a
    school in Qatar, and not matter how many times I ask them
    not to, teachers still leave computers, classroom lights, even televisions on
    overnight.

    I was therefore hoping that you
    might be able to tell me if there was anything written in the Qur’an which I
    can use/quote to back me up? Any ideas
    anyone?

    Thank you for any help!

    Eco-Stu [& I know that Eco-Stu sounds like ‘cheap-soup’
    - as in economical-stew!]

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dear Economical-Stu, thanks for dropping by (:

    It may just be a mindset that turning things off is not significant, not as dramatically life-saving. If you're fluent with the language, just ask them: What would Prophet Muhammad do on leaving a room that's empty but "switched on"?


    Islam has 2 primary sources of guidelines and laws: Quran and the Prophet Muhammad's way of life (Sunnah). In these Muslims can find very broad but detailed statements of how to live life. Therefore, although there is no direct quote in the Quran that says "Hey, turn off your stuff before you leave", there are beautiful statements telling us to end corruption, be environmental stewards and help the community, some are noted above, another two are:

    "Do not cause corruption on the earth" - 2:11

    "And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption" - 2:205



    Leave some polite signs on reading 'Turn PCs Off' and 'Last one out? Hit the Lights'; give them a brief meeting about little actions that add up in bills and energy usage; show them this blog!


    All the best (:

    ReplyDelete
  16. MashaAllah!! I loved reading this and absolutely love you for it lols! My husband and I are both vegetarian (trying to become vegan) and unfortunately a lot of people from our community are against it - and claim 'muslims can't be vegetarian', which obviously silly! Anyway, once again, thank you for sharing this! Much love and light and God bless !

    ReplyDelete
  17. nice post about quranic verses thank you for sharing

    ReplyDelete

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