Thursday, October 19, 2006

many receive nothing from the fast...

"Many receive nothing from the fast except hunger and thirst."
-a hadith

4 comments:

sondjata said...

a most potent observation with many corolaries across religions.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

I had my own thought process which led me to quote the hadith but now I'm curious... what are some of the many corollaries you have in mind?

sondjata said...

Well in the Seventh Day Adventist church they have periodic "prayer and fasting"events to which I can say the quote definitely applies.

In Ifa sacrifice is central to it's worldview but as your quote points out, some people go through it and gain nothing/.

Generally any religion that requires some kind of physical sacrifice for spiritual growth can have that quote applied.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately my husband has many relatives who fast in Ramadan but do not pray, period. Once I thought they were going to flog me when I told them during iftar, "this fasting w/ no worship is just an empty belly, why do you bother??"