ভূমিকা
The (‘a) have paid exceptional attention to this devotional act whose details are reported from them through hundreds of traditions. Obligatory Fasting Obligatory fasting is observed during the month of Ramadhan, and it is also the most favorable sort of fasting.
Fasting for two consecutive months is obligatory as a kaffarah (reparation; expiation from a violation of a religious duty) upon those who commit a murder while a three-day fasting is obligatory as a kaffarah for those who break their oaths. As for the performers of the ritual Hajj pilgrimage who cannot find any animal to offer as a sacrifice, it is obligatory upon them to fast for ten days: three during Hajj and seven when they return home.
Other forms of obligatory fasting are the fasting of those who vow or pledge to observe fasting and those who fast on behalf of dead people. Some jurisprudents deem it obligatory upon those who sleep until the next morning without performing the obligatory early night prayer to observe fasting the following day.
It is obligatory upon a mu’takif (one who practices i’tikaf ; confinement to a holy place for practicing devotional acts) who has spent two days of i’tikaf to observe fasting on the third day because he is required to complete the duration of i’tikaf , which is three days. The details of the laws of obligatory fasting are cited in books on practical laws of Islam; it is therefore necessary to refer to these books to acquaint oneself with these details.
Forbidden Fasting Fasting is forbidden on the two ‘«d days (i.e.