Among the Meanings of Patience: Fasting

Among the meanings of patience: fasting!

{O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer}

Patience: fasting, and prayer has Quran in it. That is: seek help in the affairs of your worldly life and your Hereafter through fasting, the Quran, and prayer.

"By patience He meant fasting. Imam Ahmad said: We have narrated this from Mujahid. This is because of the patience in fasting, in abstaining from the food and drink one is accustomed to during the day, while one's nature is drawn toward them and the soul yearns for them; and for this reason the month of Ramadan was called the month of patience"

"Abu Ubayd said: It reached me from Sufyan ibn Uyaynah that he interpreted His saying as referring to fasting. He said: Because fasting is patience; a person restrains himself from food, drink, and marital relations. Then he recited: {Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account} (Shu'ab al-Iman)

That fasting is a radiance that burns away sins and desires; the flash of its lightning almost takes away the eyesight! And it gives a wondrous sharpness of insight and strength in perception and knowledge; because the Prophet ﷺ said “and prayer is light, and patience is illumination”

That is: and fasting is illumination. Al-Bayhaqi used this hadith as evidence that among the names of fasting is patience.

And al-Asqalani said in al-Fath: "Fasting, for it is for Me and I shall reward for it, meaning: I shall reward for it with an abundant reward without specifying its amount, and this is like the saying of the Exalted: ﴿Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account﴾. End quote. And the patient are those who fast, according to most views… I say: Abu Ubayd preceded him in this in his Gharib, saying: It reached me from Ibn Uyaynah that he said that, and he cited as evidence for it that fasting is patience; because the one fasting restrains himself from desires, and Allah the Exalted has said: ﴿Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account﴾"

Fasting is a treatment for the heart

And the evidence supported by the authentic hadith: “Whoever would be pleased to have much of the rancor of his chest removed, let him fast the month of patience and three days of every month”,

And another wording: “Fasting three days of the month removes the rancor of the chest”

"He says: Among what removes much of the rancor of the chest," that is: removes the deceit and malice in it, or its rage, or its hypocrisy, or the most intense anger, "is fasting the month of patience," which is the month of Ramadan, "and fasting three days of every month," so after Ramadan one suffices with fasting three days of every month throughout the year, and this equals fasting the entire year; because a good deed is worth ten like it; so a month is worth ten months, and three days of every month equal the whole month." - al-Durar al-Saniyyah (dorar.net)

The benefit of fasting is realized through its repetition; as al-Asqalani indicated regarding the hadith "O young men… then let him fast," that what is meant by it is repeated fasting. It is what brings about the fruit and increases insight

— Shoroog Almehmadi