Sawm
Sawm means fasting - abstaining from food, drink and intimacy from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is the obligatory fast, but it is not the only one. Voluntary fasts run through the year, and a few days are set aside on which fasting is not allowed.
For the month itself, see Ramadan.
What the Word Means
The root behind sawm means to hold back, to abstain, to come to a stop.
Arabic uses it for a horse that stands still rather than grazing, and for the sun at midday, when it appears to pause at the top of its arc before beginning to descend. Something that would normally be moving, holding its position.
You will also see siyam, which is the same word in another form, and the two are used interchangeably.
So the word is not primarily about hunger. It is about stopping - withholding something you would otherwise do.
What Fasting Is For
The Qur'an gives the purpose in the same breath as the command: fasting is prescribed for you as it was for those before you, so that you may become conscious of Allah (Qur'an 2:183).
Not so that you lose weight, and not as an endurance test. The stated aim is taqwa - awareness of Allah. Everything else follows from that.
There is also a statement about fasting unlike anything said of other acts. In a hadith qudsi, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ reported that Allah said: every deed of the son of Adam is for him, except fasting - it is for Me, and I shall reward it. The same narration adds that fasting is a shield, that someone fasting should not be obscene or quarrel, and that if anyone insults him he should simply say: I am fasting (Sahih al-Bukhari 1904; Sahih Muslim 1151).
Scholars have long discussed why fasting alone is singled out that way. The most common explanation is simple enough: every other act of worship can be seen. Prayer can be observed, charity can be counted, Hajj leaves a record. A fast is invisible. Nobody can tell whether the person at their desk has eaten, and the only witness is the one fasting - and Allah.
The same narration gives the fasting person two joys: one when they break the fast, and one when they meet their Lord.
More Than Ramadan
This is the part most people have not met, and it is the reason this term needs a page of its own.
Six days in Shawwal. The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever fasts Ramadan and then follows it with six days of Shawwal, it is as though he fasted the whole year (Sahih Muslim 1164). They need not be consecutive, and scholars including Ibn al-Mubarak held they may be spread through the month.
Mondays and Thursdays. His regular practice, and the easiest voluntary fast to sustain.
The white days. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of each lunar month, named for the brightness of the full moon.
Ashura. The tenth of Muharram, with the ninth fasted alongside it. The Prophet ﷺ said he hoped it would expiate the year before.
The Day of Arafah. The ninth of Dhul Hijjah, for anyone not performing Hajj - covered on the Eid al-Adha page.
The fast of Dawud. Fasting every other day. The Prophet ﷺ described it as the fast most beloved to Allah, and also told a companion who wanted to fast more that there was nothing better than this.
That last point is worth sitting with. A man asked permission to fast every single day, and was told no - alternate days, and no more. More is not always better.
The Days You Must Not Fast
Two days are closed entirely: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Fasting on either is not permitted, however pious the intention.
The three days after Eid al-Adha - the Days of Tashriq - are also days for eating rather than fasting, as set out on the Eid al-Adha page.
Beyond those, some practices are discouraged rather than forbidden. Singling out a Friday for fasting, without the Thursday or Saturday alongside it. Fasting continuously without breaking at sunset. And fasting the entire year, which the narration above expressly declined to permit.
The pattern is consistent. Fasting is encouraged, and fasting without limit is not.
Fasts That Are Owed
Not all fasting is voluntary, and not all obligatory fasting is Ramadan.
Making up missed days from Ramadan, which is qada.
Expiation, where someone broke a Ramadan fast deliberately or must make amends for certain other matters - set out on the Kaffarah page.
A vow. Someone who pledges to fast if a particular thing happens is bound by it once it does.
Where fasting is genuinely impossible and will remain so, Fidya takes its place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most scholars say no. A voluntary fast is undertaken freely and may be ended freely - the Prophet ﷺ described someone fasting voluntarily as being in charge of themselves. Hanafi scholars take a stricter view and require it to be made up. Follow the position of your own school, and do not let the question put you off starting.
Scholars differ, and this is one of the most asked questions of the year. Some hold that the missed obligation comes first, pointing to the wording of the narration - whoever fasts Ramadan, then follows it. Others permit the voluntary fasts first, since the window for Shawwal closes at the end of the month while make-up days can be done any time. Ask rather than assume, particularly if you have a lot of days owing.
The narration speaks of expiating the previous year, and scholars understand that as referring to lesser sins rather than major ones, which require repentance. It is a considerable reward for a single day, and it is not a substitute for putting right what needs putting right.
You can go without food for any lawful reason, and there is nothing wrong with it. But sawm as an act of worship requires the intention of worship. Someone fasting purely to lose weight has fasted in the ordinary sense and not in the religious one. The same day, with the intention added, becomes both.
Most scholars say yes, where Friday is singled out and the day before or after is not included. Friday already has its own status in the week, and the guidance is not to add to it in a way nobody was instructed to. If a recommended fast such as the white days happens to fall on a Friday, that is not singling it out.
The Days You Must Not Fast
Two days are closed entirely: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Fasting on either is not permitted, however pious the intention.
The three days after Eid al-Adha - the Days of Tashriq - are also days for eating rather than fasting, as set out on the Eid al-Adha page.
Beyond those, some practices are discouraged rather than forbidden. Singling out a Friday for fasting, without the Thursday or Saturday alongside it. Fasting continuously without breaking at sunset. And fasting the entire year, which the narration above expressly declined to permit.
The pattern is consistent. Fasting is encouraged, and fasting without limit is not.
Not all fasting is voluntary, and not all obligatory fasting is Ramadan.
Making up missed days from Ramadan, which is qada.
Expiation, where someone broke a Ramadan fast deliberately or must make amends for certain other matters - set out on the Kaffarah page.
A vow. Someone who pledges to fast if a particular thing happens is bound by it once it does.
Where fasting is genuinely impossible and will remain so, Fidya takes its place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most scholars say no. A voluntary fast is undertaken freely and may be ended freely - the Prophet ﷺ described someone fasting voluntarily as being in charge of themselves. Hanafi scholars take a stricter view and require it to be made up. Follow the position of your own school, and do not let the question put you off starting.
Scholars differ, and this is one of the most asked questions of the year. Some hold that the missed obligation comes first, pointing to the wording of the narration - whoever fasts Ramadan, then follows it. Others permit the voluntary fasts first, since the window for Shawwal closes at the end of the month while make-up days can be done any time. Ask rather than assume, particularly if you have a lot of days owing.
The narration speaks of expiating the previous year, and scholars understand that as referring to lesser sins rather than major ones, which require repentance. It is a considerable reward for a single day, and it is not a substitute for putting right what needs putting right.
You can go without food for any lawful reason, and there is nothing wrong with it. But sawm as an act of worship requires the intention of worship. Someone fasting purely to lose weight has fasted in the ordinary sense and not in the religious one. The same day, with the intention added, becomes both.
Most scholars say yes, where Friday is singled out and the day before or after is not included. Friday already has its own status in the week, and the guidance is not to add to it in a way nobody was instructed to. If a recommended fast such as the white days happens to fall on a Friday, that is not singling it out.