Miftah-ul-Janna (Booklet for way to Paradise)

who eats and drinks floutingly without an ’udhr to do so on a day
of Ramadân becomes a murtadd (renegade, apostate). (Fatâwâ-i-
Feyziyya.)
If a person only chews a grain of sesame, his fast does not
become fâsid. However, if he swallows it, regardless of whether he
chewed it or not, his fast becomes fâsid. It will be necessary to
make qadâ of it.
There are fifteen kinds of fast: three of them are farz, three of
them are wâjib, five of them are harâm, and four of them are
sunnat. Fasts that are farz are: fasting in Ramadân, fasting for
making qadâ, and fasting for kaffârat.
Fasts that are wâjib are: fasting for a nazr-i-mu’ayyen, fasting
for a nazr-i-mutlaq, and to carry on a nâfila fast until sunset once
you have started performing it.
Fasts that are harâm are: fasting on the first day of the ’Iyd of
Ramadân and on any of all four days of the ’Iyd of Qurbân. It is
harâm to fast on any of these five days.
Fasts that are sunnat are: Fasting on the eyyâm-i-beydhî of
every (Arabic) month, on the days called sawm-i-Dâwûd, on
Mondays, on Thursdays, on the ’Ashûra day, on the ’Arafa day,
and on similar blessed days. The fourteenth and fifteenth and
sixteenth days of Arabic months are called eyyam-i-beydhî.
Fasting every other day, and not fasting on the days in between,
yearly, is called sawm-i-Dâwûd. (The ’Ashûra day is the tenth day
of Muharram, the first Arabic month. The ’Arafa day is the ninth
day of the Arabic month Du’l-hijja, i.e. the day previous to the first
day of the ’Iyd of Qurbân.)
There are eleven benefits in fasting:
1– It shields you against Hell.
2– It causes other acts of worship (which you have performed)
to be accepted (by Allâhu ta’âlâ).
3– It is a dhikr performed by one’s body.
4– It breaks one’s kibr (arrogance, conceit, vanity).
5– It breaks one’s ’ujb (egoism, taking pride in one’s acts of
worship).
6– It enhances khushû’ (fear of Allâhu ta’âlâ).
7– The thawâb earned for it will be on the mîzân (balance to
weigh one’s good deeds in the Hereafter).
8– Allâhu is pleased with His (fasting) slave.
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