(July 11, 2014 at 12:56 pm)Hotel Bravo Wrote: Thank you everyone for your warm welcome and some great advices.Fasting, as many other... errr... rituals... from the muslim world (and other religions) are not really muslim original ideas, but rather something the muslims picked up and incorporated into their rule-book.
I generally don't have any issues with swearing or profanity as my 12 years of earlier Airforce career has amply prepared me on how to use them and how to develop thick skin against them. It was just that I felt that many good threads and discussions were merely derailed and lead no where because of it. Anyways lets move on.
Its month of Ramathan and thats reminds me that I will ask few questions from Allah about it..... What wrong did people of higher latitude do ? Do you really expect people of Iceland, Sweden or UK to fast for more than 20 hours everyday for whole month !!! What spiritual benefit are we really looking to gain from here by starving these millions of Muslims virtually for whole day? Or did you really thought that Islam will only restrict to desert where there's hardly any different in winter/summer daylight....
17 to 22 hours of fast is a torture and unhealthy by any standards. But many believers think that more torture you go thru , more blessings you collect . Muslims seriously need to address this issue and pass some ruling about it. But as most (so called) scholars are from Middle East and they are not effected by daylight issue so probably they are not even slightly bothered . Logic fails me here.
Rant over and out
http://img.astroawani.com/2014-07/614044...eesize.jpg
Not long ago, I quoted a fair bit of the wiki article on the niqab to somewhere on this forum and it turns out such a "veil" has been used since before the romans, typically, as a way to keep women in a submissive position.
Fasting... let's wiki!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting
Not much on the history itself, but it does show that fasting is practiced by several religions of the world.
On another site:
Quote:The early great philosophers, thinkers, and healers used fasting for health and as healing therapy. Hippocrates, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and Galen all praised the benefits of fasting. Paracelsus, one of the three fathers of Western medicine, is quoted as saying, "Fasting is the greatest remedy--the physician within." Early healing arts recognized the revitalizing and rejuvenating power fasting promoted.
Early religious and spiritual groups used fasting as a part of ceremonies and rites--most often during spring and fall equinoxes. Today, every major religion practices fasting for various spiritual benefit.
But I'm still not satisfied... sadly, the first few links on google seem related to religion or some supposed benefits from fasting... meh.
My guess (that's why I'm not satisfied) is that it begins with some shortage of food around a particular time of the year, on a particular location.
