عن أبي هُرَيرة رضي الله عنه، أن رسول الله ﷺ قال: «قال اللهُ عزَّ وجلَّ: كلُّ عمَلِ ابن آدمَ له، إلَّا الصيامَ؛ فإنه لي، وأنا أَجْزِي به، والصِّيامُ جُنَّةٌ، وإذا كان يومُ صومِ أحدكم، فلا يَرْفُثْ، ولا يَصْخَبْ، فإن سابَّهُ أحدٌ أو قاتَلَهُ، فليقُلْ: إني امرؤٌ صائمٌ، والذي نفْسُ محمدٍ بيده، لَخُلُوفُ فمِ الصائم أطيبُ عند الله مِن ريحِ المِسْك، للصائمِ فَرْحتانِ يَفرَحُهما: إذا أفطَرَ فَرِحَ، وإذا لَقِيَ ربَّهُ فَرِحَ بصومِه»
Abu Hurayrah narrated that God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said:
1. God, Mighty and Exalted, said: ‘All man’s actions are his except fasting: it is Mine and I reward it’. 2. Fasting is a shield. 3. If any of you is fasting, he must neither say what is obscene nor shout. If someone abuses him verbally or quarrels with him, he should say: ‘I am a fasting person’. 4. By Him who holds Muhammad’s soul in His hand, the changing mouth smell of a fasting person is sweeter in God’s view, on the Day of Resurrection, than the smell of musk. 5. A fasting person has two occasions to rejoice: when he ends his fast he rejoices at having completed his fast, and when he meets his Lord, he rejoices at having fasted.
Related by al-Bukhari, 1904; Muslim, 1151.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) mentions some of the merits of fasting. One of these is that God assumes rewarding it without telling anyone what reward He gives for it. Another is that fasting is a shield protecting a person from indulging in sin. The mouth smell of a fasting person is fine in God’s estimation, even though people may find it different. The Prophet also states that a person who attends to the worship of fasting will rejoice on the Day of Judgement when he sees the reward God has prepared for His fasting servants, and he is pleased in this life that God has enabled him to fast.
