The word · Worship
صَوْم
Sawm
Fasting: abstaining from food, drink and intimacy from true dawn until sunset, with intention.
Also written · Siyam · Saum · Soum · Roza · Rozah · Oruc · Puasa · fasting · fast · Sawm Ramadan
The meaning
What Sawm means in Islam
The word means to hold back. Fasting the month of Ramadan is the fourth pillar, and voluntary fasts are kept on other days through the year. The Qur'an sets its purpose as taqwa, God consciousness, and the Prophet warned that a fast without leaving off false speech is only hunger and thirst. Illness, travel, pregnancy, nursing, menstruation and old age all carry recognised concessions.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- SuhurThe meal eaten before dawn to begin a day of fasting.سُحور
- IftarBreaking the fast at sunset, traditionally with dates and water before the Maghrib prayer.إِفْطار
- Qada (making up worship)Performing an obligatory act of worship after its proper time has passed, to make it up.قَضاء
- FidyahFeeding a poor person for each fast that a person is permanently unable to keep or make up.فِدْيَة
- I'tikafStaying in a mosque for a set period, devoted to worship and cut off from ordinary business.اعْتِكاف
More from Worship
- AdhanThe call announcing that a prayer time has entered, given aloud before each obligatory prayer.أَذان
- HalqShaving the head after the rites, which releases the pilgrim from the state of ihram.حَلْق
- KhumsA fifth of certain wealth; in Sunni law on spoils and treasure, in Shia practice a yearly payment.خُمْس
- NiyyahThe intention in the heart that turns an ordinary act into an act of worship.نِيَّة
- Salat al-EidThe two rak'ah prayer on the morning of the two Eids, with extra takbirs and a sermon after.صَلاةُ العيد
- Takbirat al-IhramThe opening "Allahu akbar" that begins the prayer and closes off everything outside it.تَكْبيرَةُ الإِحْرام