In more than 25 books, which is a sentence of what the Arab writer Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akkad (1898-1964) wrote about Islam, in defense of its heroes and a victory for its principles, the author laid an integrated structure, a fixed foundation in which he explains the message of "Islam in the twentieth century" and then explains "the facts of Islam and the falsehoods of its opponents" and explains the rights of women and human beings in the Qur'an.

Akkad wrote about the importance of religion in society, and that there is no society without religion, and the importance of religion is actually associated with the existence of society itself, and the faith of some of the owners of sects is one of the colors of religious feeling, and if it were not for the enthusiasm of this feeling, they would not have fixed it and would not have endured sacrifice in order to spread it.

Age of Faith

Fasting had a large share in the writings of Akkad, so it was not written for fasting Muslims only, and it was not written while wearing the surveys of preachers, but directed its writing to non-Muslims and those who do not have a religion, and with a smooth logic and a strong argument that presents the law of fasting as a matter of secular logic that practices fasting for the health and beauty of his body, or to express his protest, and wrote about the types of fasting in our time, to demonstrate in the end that we live in the age of faith, not the age of atheism.

In the Ramadan issue, corresponding to May 1955 of the magazine "Al-Hilal", Akkad wrote an article in which he described fasting as a social obligation, and described it as "the literature of the will, and its wisdom is the wisdom of the will, and the will is not a simple thing in religion, and creation in religion, and creation is only consequences and costs, and whoever owns the will, the reins of creation are all in his hands."

In Ramadan, a known date of the year to tame the group on one system of living, and on one pattern of changing habits, and it is not more suitable for the education of the nation than accustoming it to this importance of the system, and changing customs month every year, in which they converge on the same Sunnah in food, wakefulness and sleeping.

Types of fasting

On our modern age, he wrote in the magazine Minbar al-Islam in February 1962, "One of the rumors that circulated for a long time about the twentieth century is that it is the age of sense and tangible matter."

He added, "They are rumors, the reality in the twentieth century is that the whole matter has moved from the search for its truth, from the world of sense to the world of sight or the world of the unseen, and in the twentieth century has been proven for spiritual worship of virtues unless proven before the twentieth century without the virtue of obedience due to the orders of religion, or other than the reasons that are unique to the religious, and the establishment of evidence of its necessity, do not fall within the scope of research addressed by materialists or scientists of the senses."

Fasting is at the forefront of these religious orders, which were reconsidered by the people of the twentieth century, and its many advantages appeared to it, in addition to the advantages of worship and belief in the rights of the unseen with the rights of martyrdom and eyesight, according to Akkad.

"All twentieth-century people practiced a kind of fasting at one time, for the goodness of structure, the goodness of manners, or the goodness of taste and beauty," he said.

He continued, "Fasting is what is decided today to educate guerrilla morals in soldiers, and from fasting, which has proven necessary in this era, the fasting of athletes while they willingly own the reins of their physical functions, and from the modern fasting is the fasting of beauty, and to adhere to the diet in drinking water and other desirable food, and from the fasting common in the modern era fasting to protest injustice."

He concluded that all these types of fasting call for cessation of food and the desires of the body, sometimes by abstaining from all food for some time, and sometimes by abstaining from some of it at all times, and its general condition that is observed in all its types is the arbitration of the will in the desires of the soul and body, or the education of the determination to lead man to himself where he wants.

Fasting of the Prophets

Akkad points out that most ancient and modern nations knew fasting and practiced it in different ways, and says, "Before the birth of Christ, Brahmin and Buddhist fasting has been famous since the earliest historical times, with the prohibition of eating meat, and the fasting of the Babylonians and Assyrians was famous like it in a way close to the fasting that the Jews learned from them during the days of exile, following the religious rites brought by the previous messengers in Mesopotamia, the first of whom was Noah, peace be upon him."

After reviewing the forms and types of fasting and the fasting of previous nations and in the three biblical religions: Mosaic, Christian and Islam, he concludes that Islamic fasting combines all the objectives and types of fasting of nations, and says, "When comparing the types of fasting, we see the advantages of Islamic fasting among all these types, as it fulfills the general condition of fasting imposed by virtue of religion or followed by the sport of morals, and therefore it is valid for the purposes of purification, kindness, repentance, and atonement (for sins)."

In the book "Islam is a global call", Akkad goes to explain the obligation of fasting in the different religions preceding Islam, and the timing of fasting, and whether it is a total or qualitative fasting for certain foods, and says, "There is no text in the books of the Old Testament to fast at a certain time other than the fasting of atonement on the day of Ashura, and the other days of fasting for the Jews have been added with time and observed atonement and seeking forgiveness in the days of tribulations and adversity, including the day of the destruction of the Second Temple, and the days of defeat and siege, and fasting for them on three degrees: A full day, a full day, and half a day."

It was reported from the Messiah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) that he fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, and it is not reported that he commanded fasting at a specific time, and fasting is divided into abstaining from all food and abstaining from certain colors such as animal meat.

Some of the fasts begin at midnight, and some of them are sufficient for a daily meal.

As for Islamic fasting, it is fasting from dawn to sunset, and this is the best obligatory among the religious forms of fasting, because it comes in a known month, and includes the entire Islamic world, and becomes an individual worship and a general humanity at the same time, according to what Akkad wrote.

Tourism to the spirit world

Fasting is mentioned in the Quran twice in the sense of tourism in Surat Al-Tawbah ﴿ penitents, worshippers, protectors, tourists, kneeling, prostrating and commanding favor. ﴾ (112) and in Surat Al-Tahrim ﴿May his Lord, if you divorce him, replace him with husbands who are better than you, believing Muslims, Qantat, repentant worshipers, tourists, clothes and virgins﴾ (5).

The interpretations suggested that what is meant by tourism in the two verses is fasting, and Akkad gives us this beautiful thought and says, "It is a beautiful meaning that indicates the essential reality of fasting, and that it is tourism from the world of the body to the world of the spirit, so it is not limited to holding on to the desires of the body hours of the day, and it is still mostly that it transcends those desires as if it were a trip to a remote place from it, and a transition from field to field."

For the sake of the flesh

Akkad addresses his speech to the twentieth century, which launched his ridicule of fasting and fasting, and asks him for humility and politeness with his short and meaningful article entitled "A Lesson in Literature" and says:

"Yes, a lesson in literature for these centuries, which began with ridicule of those who fast for the sake of the soul and conscience, for days that may last to a month and not more than it, so they fast for the sake of the body, or for the sake of wasting and fatigue, and the mercy of healing and healing."

"Some humility, 20th century. You had to confess one fast, and today you confess colors of fasting and types of torment, sometimes for the sake of bodies, sometimes for the sake of clothes."

Night of Honor

In Al-Hilal magazine, June 1953 and March 1961, Al-Akkad wrote about the Ramadan and the Night of Power, saying, "It is the Night of Power because it is the night of appreciation and distinction between good and evil, between permissible and prohibited, and the command to call and commission, and it is the most honorable thing that man is honored by because he is the creature distinguished by assignment and special to distinguish between all creatures, and for this reason he preferred the angels."

He continued, "The Islamic faith at its core is not represented in anything as it is represented in assignment and discrimination, and in the responsible rational creature who is convicted of his work and does not suffer punishment or forgiveness from the work of others, and here the beliefs diverge between the Night of Power in the law of the Muslim and the likeness of these nights in every law in which the fate of man is entrusted with other than actions and intentions."

He added that the Muslim should return to his true Islam whenever he celebrates Laylat al-Qadr, and he mentions that it is the night of Furqan and Reckoning, and that he invites God to honor him with the verses of appreciation and reminders that the blessed nights have honored him.

Why don't machines fast from killing and pollution?

After Akkad finished explaining the types of fasting and its history among human beings, ancient and modern, and that fasting is God's instinct in all beings, he turned around in the modern era, and threw us a very strange suggestion, which is that the machines that poisoned our lives in the modern era of pollution, killing, tearing pieces and increasing consumption, why not fast for their evils for a short time, even if short, and we see, whether human life will change and change or not.

The late writer says, "Let the machines of missiles and jets be designed, and the machines of curiosity and superfluous be designed, and every machine that increases the need of man and does not enrich him from a need is opened to him except opening the doors of needs for him. Let these machines be deaf and not eat fire and smoke for a few days, and let people see how they become experimentally if the machines are silent?"