While keeping fast, kissing, sucking tongues, having sex -- all was OK for the Prophet and the Sahaaba. But will we modern Muslims dare do likewise?


Dear Muslim brother! We know that the month of Ramadan is a month of “Salvation” for Muslims. All of us want to fast for all 30 days of Ramadan (with additional 6 days in the subsequent month of ‘Shawwaal’ as bonus); we offer prayers more than normal; we spend money on charity etc.

Most of us fast during Ramadan thinking that it will please Allah, while some of us may do it just as a social formality. If a Muslim doesn’t fast during Ramadan, he/she is looked down upon by fellow Muslims in the community.

In this article, I will try to compare us—the Muslims of modern age—with the Sahaaba, the greatest of Muslims in the eternal history of Islam.

THE FASTING SPIRIT OF MORDERN MUSLIMS

To give an idea of the craze for fasting among Muslims during the month of Ramadan, I will share my own experience of my very first fasting at the age of seven. I was brought up in a predominantly Muslim community in South India with few Hindu and Christian neighbors here and there. Although Muslims are supposed to start fasting at the age of seven, in my moderate Muslim community, young children below ten years of age are not usually encouraged to observe fast during Ramadan, while the older Muslim boys above 10 years of age, who observe fast, find it as a matter of pride and boast about their fasting in the friend circle. They often mock their younger siblings and neighbors below the age of 10 for not observing fast and call them ‘Shovel Mouth’ and ‘Glutton’. When I was seven, I was teased likewise by my siblings and neighborhood boys for not fasting.

Being of very sensitive nature, I felt much offended by their mocking and insisted that my parents allow me to fast when I was just 7. As an average orthodox Muslim, my father was happy to hear about my desire to fast, but he neither objected nor supported me to fast at so tender an age, whereas my mom, somewhat liberal, objected to my fasting for 15 long hours at so young an age. As I insisted, she gave me a deceptive promise to wake me up for Suhoor at mid-night, but she didn’t.

As I had told my elder siblings and neighborhood boys about my determination to fast, the next morning they mocked me even more. Being offended by their insults, I quarreled with my mother on her deception and went to school without eating food. During lunch hour, my older brother brought some bread for me to school and persuaded me to eat. I ate it for lunch only after he promised to let me observe fast. My mother promised to allow me fast for only two days, on the 15th and 27th of Ramadan. In India, we called these two days of Ramadan as ‘special day’ of fast, because young beginners inaugurate their fasting on these days. This time my mother allowed me to fast, although reluctantly.

My fellow brethren! This summarizes the spirit of fasting during the month of Ramadan among us innocent Muslims of today. This is how we respect the month of Ramadan and its holiness, merely on listening (not on reading by ourselves) to the lectures of our Mullahs. Now let us stop hearing the lectures of Mullahs, and read and analyze our scriptures to understand the real meaning and significance of fasting in Islam, and then decide about observing it. Let us see here what is written about superiority of the Sahaaba in the most respected authentic collection of hadiths, Sahih Al-Bukhari, the most sacred next to the Quran.

SUPERIORITY(!) OF THE SAHAABA – THE DIRECT STUDENTS OF MUHAMMAD

As the easy-going Muslims of our age, our fault, sins and deficiency in religion may be somewhat justified, because we are 14 centuries far from our beloved prophet, and often have no time to study the vast scriptures of Islam due to the burdens of modern life. On the other hand, the Sahaaba learned about Islam and accepted it directly from our holy prophet and practiced Islam alongside the Prophet. As a result, they are supposed to be far more superior to us, the ordinary Muslims of today, in virtue and piety. And we see the Sahaaba in exactly the very same light, whose piety, we are told, can never be matched by today’s Muslims and we hold the Sahaaba in very high esteem. Our Mullahs even tell us that we won’t be able to attain the 1/100th part of the noble lifestyle and superior qualities of the Sahaaba in religion and morality, even if we strive our best.

Maybe our mullahs are correct. After reading the following hadiths, one can be certain that it is impossible for us to follow the same kind of piety and morality of the ‘pious’ Sahaaba, but for a different reason.

FASTING GOOD FOR BACHELORS TO REDUCE SEXUAL URGE

Prophet Muhammad advised his companions, who were bachelor, to fast in order to reduce their sexual urge, because the practice of masturbation was common among them:

“It is narrated that the Companions of the Prophet (s) used to masturbate while they were on military expeditions or travelling". (Bada'i al-Fuwa'id of Ibn Qayyim (Islamic scholar), p. 129)

During the first thirteen years of his prophethood, our prophet managed to win over only 78 men and women as his followers. Most of them were his close relatives, friends and the slaves, whom he had purchased with Khadija’s wealth after her inexplicable ‘sudden’ death (Most of the deaths of Muhammad’s close relatives were ‘sudden’ and is not much discussed in Islamic literature. For example, all of his four daughters and a few among of his big team of wives met “sudden” deaths in their twenties with little written down about the reasons).

During the aggressive final ten years of his life, the Prophet was mad about his greedy ambition for power. So he bribed his male followers with the lure of immoral sexual gratifications and looted booty. To entertain his ‘pious’ male companions, the prophet made the captured women of attacked tribes almost nude, by making them wear only a piece of garment under their waist, thus leaving the upper body exposed. This made the life hellish for the captive and slave women, who felt it embarrassing even to go out of their dwellings to answer the call of nature during the day time. At the same time, to protect the honor of the wives of the believers, he differentiated the official 4 wives from the slave-girls, on whom Muhammad ordained veil upon Umar’s advice to do as discussed in another article (The Horrible Status of Women in Islam, Part 2).

As discussed in previous articles, our prophet feared attack from his victims during the ‘sacred’ month of Ramadan. He wanted his companions to stay around him to ensure his security, instead of running after women. So, he recommended his bachelor companions to fast for killing their sexual urge, thus preventing them from running after the women:

Narrated 'Alqama: While I was walking with 'Abdullah he said, "We were in the company of the Prophet and he said, 'He who can afford to marry should marry, because it will help him refrain from looking at other women, and save his private parts from looking at other women, and save his private parts from committing illegal sexual relation; and he who cannot afford to marry is advised to fast, as fasting will diminish his sexual power." (Sahih Al-Bukhari 3:129)

Fasting is recommended for those who fear committing illegal sexual relation. (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 3, The book of fasting, p. 71)

Muhammad recommended fasting to those who cannot afford to marry, as fasting will diminish their sexual power. (Sahih Al-Bukhari 3:129)

(Very good reason for fasting)

If fasting is for all Muslims, supposed to start at the age of seven, then why Muhammad specifically recommended it for the bachelors only? While distributing the captured women amongst his Sahaaba, Muhammad was very partial and favored the Mujahirs, the migrated Meccan converts and also the strong warriors. This special recommendation of fasting in the above hadiths was especially for Muhammad’s black slaves, who were normally unmarried because the Arab women didn’t want to marry them, and Muhammad also deprived them by not giving the women captives (who were Arabs), though they fought for him at the forefront in wars for “Allah’s cause”.

SEXUAL PRIVILEGE FOR MUHAMMAD AND HIS AGE-GROUP SAHAABA DURING FASTING

After the death of his first wife Khadeeja in his early 50s, Muhammad removed all restrictions to the fulfillment of his sexual desires, allowing him to do it with as many women as he wished. He even removed the restriction of kissing and sucking tongues etc. for himself and the older Sahaaba during fasting (making the senior cohorts of his companions, such as his fathers-in-law Abu Bakr, Umar & Abu Sufiyaan happy were so crucial to his ambition?):

  1. Narrated Abu Hurayrah: A man asked Muhammad whether one who was fasting could embrace his wife and he gave him permission; but when another man came to him, and asked him, he forbade him. The one to whom he gave permission was an old man and the one whom he forbade was a youth. (Sunan Abu Dawood 2385, 2387)
  2. Umar (prophet’s father-in-law) kissed his wife while fasting and Muhammad said to him, it is OK. (Sunan Abu Dawood, 2385)
  3. Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) used to kiss her and suck her tongue when he was fasting." (Sunaan Abu Dawud 13:2380)

INTENTIONAL SEX WHILE FASTING? NO PROBLEM!

Dear Muslims! You know that having sex during fasting is prohibited in Islam. Allah also commanded the same in the Quran. But you must be unaware that our most respected prophet disregarded Allah’s command and permitted it to his most ‘pious’ Sahaaba with an expiation. There are several hadith that narrates that Muhammad asked his companions to pay a little charity if they had sex with their wives and slave-girls at different ‘circumstances’ while fasting in the month of Ramadan.

Narrated Abu Huraira: While we were sitting with the Prophet a man came and said, "O Allah's Apostle! I have been ruined." Allah's Apostle asked what the matter with him was. He replied "I had sexual intercourse with my wife while I was fasting." Allah's Apostle asked him, "Can you afford to manumit a slave?" He replied in the negative. Allah's Apostle asked him, "Can you fast for two successive months?" He replied in the negative. The Prophet asked him, "Can you afford to feed sixty poor persons?" He replied in the negative. The Prophet kept silent and while we were in that state, a big basket full of dates was brought to the Prophet. He asked, "Where is the questioner?" He replied, "I (am here)." The Prophet said (to him), "Take this (basket of dates) and give it in charity." The man said, "Should I give it to a person poorer than I? By Allah; there is no family between its (i.e. Medina's) two mountains who are poorer than I." The Prophet smiled till his pre-molar teeth became visible and then said, 'Feed your family with it." (Sahih Al-Bukhari 3:156-158)

My dear brothers! Will any of us be willing to have sex with our wives while keeping fast during this year’s Ramadan, and then spend a little in charity, which our beloved prophet has approved? I’m sure, we won’t, because we are not similar in piety as were the prophet and the ‘pious’ Sahaaba. Because of this ‘incapability’ of ours for moral reasons, our Mullahs challenge us that we cannot attain the ‘level’ of piety of the Sahaaba. Our Mullahs are certainly correct. The Sahaaba were superior in piety, the piety that we will never want to practice, even if we could.

CONCLUSION

Dear brothers! Don’t get dejected after discovering the horrible character and nature of piety of the holy prophet and the blessed Sahaaba. What is discussed above is only a drop of the bullshit piety of the Sahaaba, the ‘best’ students of Muhammad and the greatest of Muslims. If you start exploring our scriptures, you will find an ocean of such embarrassing, even horrendous, incidents about the Sahaaba. And that will also make you realize what kind of a religion Islam is all about.

In the next article, let us discuss about how our erotic prophet himself treated fasting during the Ramadan in his sixties.



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