It's too late here to start fasting, but I'll definitely do it tomorrow! Green tea usually keeps me going quite well.

Hey, try this for a double whammy. After fajr at masjid al-Noor, here in Santa Clara, they pointed out a "Six days" fast for this month, which apparently yields the imputed weight of having fasted all year. Only in a legalistic theology...

Green tea is what I guzzle besides black coffee. ;)

It just reminds me why I find religion absurd. I'll let you know how the fast is going tomorrow, perhaps I'll continue for 2-3 days, clean out the old system a bit, I haven't done that in a while.

Fasting against hunger, always reminds me of fighting for peace. I appreciate the sentiment, but cannot but see it as less than effective.

Intrinsically, fasting itself is a very personal action which has no external consequence: it's inherent goals may be spiritual, and/or physically cleansing. However, the advertisement and publicity of one's fast may actually be effective. I make no mention of other fasts I undertake, for they have no externalities, so to speak, but in this particular instance, my fast occured on a specific date, the 21st, and was tallied at the website cited. While I am not anyone of note, I was among those counted in its efforts that day to raise a modicum of awareness and contribute to the embarassment of the regime in Khartoum. Other things I do are probably more effective, but fasting as a form of protest against needless hunger, properly publicized, can be effective.

Of course, I'm not entirely pacifistic. Among my censored inclinations would be a desire to turn an AK-47 and machete back upon the Janjaweed who wage their state sponsored genocide in Darfur. While perhaps effective, and certainly satisfying on some level, that would hardly have the moral tenor of fasting.

Fighting for peace, as in waging a limited amount of violence in prevention of an unbridled conflagration of violence, can in fact make sense. Consider the classic thought-experiment of assassinating Hitler before the Holocaust and Blitzkriegen.

Ummmmm Hellio Love ya, and respects but I NEED TO EAT haha.

((Hugs))

LOL. Well, so do I (along with all the starving folks in Darfur and elsewhere, like San Francisco's Tenderloin). But every now and then, not eating on purpose can serve as a moral statement and highlighter of reflection. It can also help you diet and generally give your gluttonous corpse-to-be a rest. ;)

Not today, though. I've got breakfast on my mind...

Hellow davidsbass :
can i give you a gift
i invite you to follow Islam

Love what you are doing...wish I had the strengh.