Ṣawm
Definition
Sawm is the Arabic term for fasting — the intentional abstention from food, drink, and sexual relations from the break of dawn until sunset, performed as an act of worship. It is the fourth pillar of Islam and one of the most distinctive markers of Islamic practice, observed communally during the month of Ramadan and individually through recommended fasts throughout the year. Al-Ghazali insists that the physical act of sawm is the outer shell; the inner reality is a total withdrawal of the self from all its appetites — bodily and spiritual — in a concentrated act of submission to Allah.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
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