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Why Do We Fast? The Qur'an's Answer Is Taqwa (2:183 & Sahih Hadith)

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About this video

Is fasting about health, or about something deeper? The Qur'an names the purpose in one word: taqwa. This calm, sourced explainer looks at Qur'an 2:183, the hadith 'fasting is a shield', and what the Prophet ﷺ said a fast must guard, with framing from Maulana Maududi (Towards Understanding Islam; Tafhim al-Qur'an) and Dr Israr Ahmed (Bayan-ul-Qur'an). It also checks a popular line that is not an authentic hadith, and ends with a simple question to carry into Ramadan.

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Chapters

  1. 0:00Honesty check
  2. 0:24Qur'an 2:183
  3. 0:50Anchor hadith
  4. 1:22What the shield guards
  5. 1:44Sahih al-Bukhari
  6. 2:05For My sake
  7. 2:38Faith and hope
  8. 2:59Qur'an 2:185
  9. 3:36Before Ramadan

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Sources in this video

  • Qur'an 2:183, 2:185 (Pickthall, public domain)
  • Sahih al-Bukhari 1894, 1901, 1903, 1904
  • Towards Understanding Islam, ch.5 'Fasting'
  • Tafhim al-Qur'an, Surah 2 n.187
  • Bayan-ul-Qur'an (Roman ed.) al-Baqarah p.381
  • al-'Iraqi, Takhrij al-Ihya; al-Albani, Silsilat al-Da'ifah (on 'Fast and be healthy')

How it was made

Drawings are AI-generated; all Arabic on screen is the verified corpus text, never retyped.

On-screen translations — Qur'an: Pickthall (1930, public domain) · hadith: Learning Heaven's own rendering of the verified Arabic.

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Our sourcing method, in the Trust Centre

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