Knowra Religious fasting Religious fasting Religious fasting is voluntary abstention from food or drink undertaken within a religious tradition. Its rules, duration, and purposes vary across traditions and communities.
Ramadan : The ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, during which Muslims observe fasting from dawn to sunset. Its daily fast is one of the most widely observed forms of religious fasting.
Intention (Islam) : A conscious purpose that gives an act its religious significance in Islamic practice. In Islamic fasting, intention distinguishes worship from merely going without food.
Moses : A prophet and lawgiver in Jewish tradition, also revered in Christianity and Islam. Biblical accounts portray Moses fasting during encounters with God at Sinai.
Iftar : The meal with which Muslims end the daily fast during Ramadan, traditionally at sunset. Shared iftar meals turn daily abstention into a recurring communal gathering.
Intermittent fasting : An eating pattern that alternates periods of eating with periods of abstention, usually for health or weight management. Unlike religious fasting, it is generally defined by eating schedules rather than worship or sacred obligation.
Yom Kippur : The Jewish Day of Atonement, marked by prayer, repentance, and a traditional fast lasting from sunset to nightfall. Its prescribed fast expresses repentance and reflection within Jewish practice.
Asceticism : The disciplined renunciation of bodily pleasures or material comforts for spiritual purposes. Fasting is one form of the broader practice of ascetic restraint.
Jesus in the wilderness : The Gospel narrative in which Jesus fasts for forty days and faces temptation in the wilderness. The episode became a model for Christian fasting and spiritual preparation.
Zakat : A prescribed form of almsgiving and one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Ramadan fasting often coincides with heightened attention to charitable obligation.
Fasting (medicine) : Temporary abstention from food or drink for medical tests, procedures, or treatment. Medical fasting serves clinical requirements rather than religious purposes.
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