So, because it is ramadan and I figured a lot of you are very busy with your i’badah, I’ll give the summary of this piece here and now by saying that the hadith that says “Whoever helps break the fast of a fasting person, he will have the same reward as him without decreasing anything from the reward of the fasting person.” refers to the first food or drink the fasting person takes, not necessarily the subsequent meal even though those are also rewarded, and hopefully, by the end of this piece, you’ll agree with me.
Let me start by quoting the hadith above with its collector; Zayd ibn Khalid reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever fatọrọ ‘helps break’ the fast of a fasting person, he will have the same reward as him without decreasing anything from the reward of the fasting person.” Sunan al-Tirmidhi 807, and graded sahih (authentic).
And the conversation starts there.
The word translated to ‘helps break’ is fatọr, which is faf, tọ, and rọ. And before I go into what it really means I will like to share some of the other ahadith on the subject to show that they all used the word fatir in one form of the other. So far, I haven’t found anyone of the ahadith that used a different word:
Salman bin ‘Amr narrated that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said: “When any one of you aftọr ‘breaks’ his fast, let him yuftir ‘break’ it with dates . If he cannot find dates, then let him yuftir ‘break’ it with water, for it is a means of purification.” Ibn Majjah 1699, Tirmidhi 695, Abi Dawud 2355.
Anas bin Malik narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever has dried dates, then let him yuftir (break) the fast with that, and whoever does not, then let him yuftir ‘break’ the fast with water, for indeed water is purifying.” Tirmidhi 694.
Anas bin Malik narrated: “The Messenger of Allah would yuftiru ’break’ the fast with fresh dates before performing Salat. If there were no fresh dates then (he would break the fast) with dried dates, and if there were no dried dates then he would take a few sips of water.” Tirmidhi 696, Abi Dawud 2356.
So, we see in all these ahadith that the word translated to ‘break’ is fatir, not “tọa’m” for instance, as we see in suratul Mau’n where Allah was talking about ‘feeding the miskin (poor)’; so that just saying ‘break’ may or may not capture the essence of the word.
You know what, let’s go into the word now.
Fatir, its root alphabets are faf, tọ and rọ, and 6 forms of the word occurred 20 times in the Quran; fatọrọ 10 times, infatọrọ 1 time, fatir 6 times, fitrọtun 1 time, futur 1 time, and munfatir 1 time. And of course, it’s one of Allah’s names, and also the name of 2 surahs in the Quran; Quran 35 suratul fatir and Quran 82 suratul infitọr. It also features in eid al fitr, and zakat al fitr.
So, what does fatir really mean? It is said to mean to crack open, to rend, to split or to break something. And the story that helps bring home the meaning of these expressions is that of Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, when he said, “I did not know what Fatir As-Samawati wal-Ard meant until two bedouins came to me disputing over a well. One of them said to his companion, ‘Ana Fatartuha,’ meaning, ‘I started it.’
How the use of fatir helped solve the argument is in the fact that fatir has to do with being the initial, the starter, the beginner. So that Mr. A may have only dug one percent of the well and decided to go and get some other stuff done, if Mr. B then resumes and digs everything till he sees water, Mr. B may have dug the well, but Mr. A is the Fatir, the originator, the starter.
So when Allah says Gẹ is the fatiru samọwati wal ard, what we should understand by that is that though some things may have happened to the heavens and everything beneath it in a way that seems that they evolved to be what they are, but by Allah using fatir, Allah is saying Gẹ is The Initiator, The One that got the ball rolling, because nothing happens without an initiator.
Talking of digging wells, in the desert, bedouins just don’t dig anywhere and everywhere in search of water, there is an entire science to choosing a place that may possibly have water. They even have a system of building tunnels from a far away well to a well that’s close to town, it’s an elaborate endeavor, so that it is very important to come up with a word like fatir, the person that started it, the originator.
So, if we go to all the ahadith on breaking one’s fast and the fatir being used, especially the one that says one gets the reward of a fasting person if one gives them what they used to break their fast, without of course diminishing the reward that the person would have gotten for fasting; what that means is that it is the first food or drink that one eats that qualifies as fatir. And it makes sense that the Prophet pbuh recommends dates or water, especially since the prophet pbuh breaks his fast before magrib as seen in the hadith by Anas above.
While there are rewards for providing the meal that one eats after magrib, for more reward, like the reward of an entire fasting person, perhaps, we should also be focusing on that initial date or water that the faster takes before magrib.
All in all, we see now that all fatir of someone else’s fast is feeding them, but not all feeding someone that fasted can be termed fatir. As you fatir your fast today and that of others, please, say a prayer for Muslims around the world. 🤲🏿
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