Iftar

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A banquet of iftar in the holy shrine of Imam al-Rida (a)

Ifṭār (Arabic: إفطار) is breaking fast. Some manners are mentioned as recommended to be performed upon breaking fast (in maghrib), including reciting supplication and the Qur'an 97. In addition, it is mentioned as recommended to break fast with warm water and milk. Breaking the fast in the month of Ramadan and a fast of nadhr to be performed on a certain day before adhan of maghrib is forbidden in Islam. Also, one for whom fasting involves a harm or difficulty has to break one's fast.

Meaning

"Iftar" means breaking fast.[1] Also, eating before Eid al-Fitr prayer is called Iftar and is considered recommended.[2]

Iftar is obligatory in some cases and forbidden in some other cases. Its forbidden cases are breaking the fast in the month of Ramadan and fast of nadhr set to be performed on a certain day before adhan of maghrib. Other cases of forbidden breaking of fast are breaking qada' fast after adhan of zuhr, breaking the fast in I'tikaf, breaking fast if the fasting person begins travel after adhan of zuhr.[3] If fasting involves a harm or difficulty, one has to break one's fast.[4]

Manners

Some manners are mentioned as recommended to be performed upon breaking fast including reciting supplication and the Qur'an 97 and breaking fast after performing maghrib prayer.[5] It is mentioned as recommended to break fast with warm water, milk, and sweet foods, especially dates.[6]

virtue

According to hadiths, the fasting person’s prayers are definitely answered or fulfilled by God (that is, he is mustajab al-da'wa),[7] particularly at the time of breaking his fast.[8]

Moreover, there are hadiths to the effect that it is very virtuous to provide fasters with a meal to break their fast.[9] In a hadith, Imam al-Sadiq (a) says, the reward of a person who provides a faster with a food to break his fast is equal to the reward of fasters.[10] In al-Sha'baniyya Sermon, the Prophet (s) says about the reward of giving a meal for breaking the fast: “each of you who provides a meal to a fasting believer to break his fast in the Ramadan month is given by God the reward of emancipating a slave and his past sins will be forgiven.” A person asked, “O the Apostle of Allah! Not all of us can afford that.” The Prophet (s) said, “avoid the fire by giving a fast-breaking meal to a fasting person, even though with half of a date or a sip of water.”[11]

In some holy places, such as Imam al-Rida’s (a) shrine and Lady Ma'suma’s (a) shrine, as well as some mosques, a modest meal for breaking the fast is served after the maghrib and Isha' prayers during the Ramadan month.[12]

See Also

Notes

  1. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 16, p. 384; Hāshimī Shāhrūdī, Farhang-i fiqh, vol. 1, p. 593.
  2. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 16, p. 384; Ṭabāṭabāyī al-Yazdī, al-ʿUrwa al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 102.
  3. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 16, p. 264-266; vol. 29, p. 50.
  4. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 17, p. 133; vol. 16, p. 347; vol. 17, p. 150-154.
  5. Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 16, p. 384; Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 10, p. 149-151.
  6. Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 10, p. 156-161.
  7. Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 1686; Rāwandī, Daʿawāt, vol. 1, p. 27.
  8. Rāwandī, Daʿawāt, vol. 1, p. 27.
  9. See: Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 4, p. 68-69.
  10. Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 4, p. 68.
  11. Ṣadūq, ʿUyūn akhbār al-Riḍā, vol. 1, p. 296.
  12. Simple iftar (Persian).

References

  • Hāshimī Shāhrūdī, Maḥmūd. Farhang-i fiqh muṭābiq bā madhhab-i Ahl al-Bayt. Qom: Muʾassisat Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif Fiqh al-Islāmī, 1382 Sh.
  • Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa. Beirut: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turhāth, 1414 AH.
  • Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.
  • Najafī, Muḥammad Ḥasan al-. Jawāhir al-kalām. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1404 AH.
  • Rāwandī, Saʿīd b. Hibat Allāh. Daʿawāt. Qom: Manshūrāt Madrisat al-Imām al-Mahdī, 1366 Sh.
  • Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ʿUyūn akhbār al-Riḍā. Edited by Mahdī Lājiwardī. Tehran: Nashr-i Jahān, 1378 AH.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī al-Yazdī, Sayyid Kāẓim al-. Al-ʿUrwa al-wuthqā. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1419 AH.