notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
Dear teacher, during these days, when we fast with the intention of drawing closer to God, if we also think about losing weight and getting in shape, does this compromise the sincerity of our fast?
If your primary intention in fasting is to draw closer to God, but you also think about losing weight, this detracts from the sincerity of the act. However, you can make your dietary regimen an act of fasting by purifying your intention, so that you can both get in shape and worship sincerely.
The degree of sincerity in an act of worship diminishes when the ego becomes a partner in it. Yet God, the Almighty, accepts no partner in His worship, and leaves the worship offered by His servant to that partner.
If worship also leads to a more balanced physique, we should welcome that wholeheartedly.
But if we wish to follow a diet for the sake of physical fitness, then, being intelligent, a believer can turn that diet into an act of worship: they can make it a fast and purify their intention before their Lord. We should not turn fasting into dieting; rather, we can turn dieting into fasting.
Supplication
O God, turn my diet into sincere worship of You, and make it a means of drawing near to Your sacred presence.
With regard to fasting, too, we can beseech our Lord to grant us all its benefits, including physical fitness.
Supplication
O God, make my worship sincere for You. Let me benefit from it in this world and the Hereafter, and make those benefits a means of drawing ever closer to Your sacred presence.