The Shaykh recounts his experience of a forty-day medical fast

The Shaykh : I fasted a medical fast for forty days during my time, where nothing entered my body at all except a few drops of water.

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : I remember this well on this occasion to inform you of some ... and to dispel one of the myths of the Sufis who believe that a form of worship that a human cannot endure is to live on dates. We lived on drops of water for forty consecutive days. Among the things that happened to me was that I had a habit of traveling to northern Syria, to Aleppo and Latakia, once a month. I boarded the bus from Damascus, and it is the custom of the bus to ... in the village of Homs to drop off its passengers at a terminal there and pick up new passengers to continue its journey to Aleppo. The bus entered the terminal and the driver announced that the return to continue the journey would be after half an hour. The passengers got off, and I got off with the group of those who got off. What are you delaying for? Or else something rushed to my nose from the smells of the fried foods around the terminal. There are falafel there, and there are ... grilled hearts, and I don't know what else, and so on. Allah is Great, I will never forget that moment, because I had spent, it could have been the twenty-third day, and I felt as if I were not fasting, and as if the desire of twenty days had gathered in that moment. But I was patient because I am a scholar, so I began to educate my soul ... going and coming ... the falafel, yes. Then this half hour passed with great difficulty, and we traveled to Aleppo, and then from there after a few nights to Idlib. We had students at that time who would keep the night alive there in research with the brothers ... many of them were at the Syrian University. They saw me in a state different from what they knew of me; I had become somewhat emaciated ... What is this? I told them the story that I was fasting on water only, and that I wanted to continue this fast to forty days. They said this is not possible. There were doctors studying in the Faculty of Medicine in Damascus, and they said this is not possible. And the professor of the subject with us said that a human does not have the energy to fast for more than thirty days, or they said thirty-three. I said I ... that I am able to, and our next trip is if Allah wills. And so it was in fact, and I continued the fast to the fortieth. On the morning of the fortieth day, I had a motorcycle at that time, so I rode it ... And we had a doctor there, a family doctor named Dr. Sa'id ... And this man had, I mean, good positions regarding the preservation of the features of Syria, lest it fall into the hands of the French colonizer at that time. He was a brave man, I mean, with very strange bravery, and calm in ... He had special care for patients, and he had a register in which he recorded the name of the patient, the disease he treated, and the medicines he gave him.
The student : ...

The Shaykh : I had a disease or diseases, among which was that I felt an abnormal condition in my health, so I would go to this doctor, and he would examine me as is the custom of doctors, putting the stethoscope and putting the receiver here ... He would tell me that the heart has four centers ... Three centers had an abnormal condition, with a sound in his ear saying an abnormal sound. He would give me a prescription for a week, saying come back the second week, and I would return the second week, and he would adjust the previous prescription for me to use and see what happens with you. I would go and come, and go and come ... except that he would only tell me sometimes that one of the three affected centers is healthy, and there are still two centers ... When I read a book called "Medicine by Fasting" by an Austrian or Russian author, I forgot, and its translator was a Lebanese Maronite priest, and he mentioned there incidents and things ... with it, and I believed it. I said to myself, I will try it. How long have we been with this doctor, who is an advisor and a Muslim, yet there is nothing but him telling me, "One center is healthy, two centers remain ... Go. So that you heal the other two centers, or if you don't heal them." And it is not hidden from you that a human has duties, work, and reading, so a human gets tired of going and coming. I said, let me try this fasting ... It has wonderful benefits. And in fact, I started the fasting and finished it, then I went to this doctor on the forty-first day. He looked at me as if he did not know me, because my weight had dropped by ten kilos, no more, twenty kilos. Half a kilo every day, my weight had dropped by twenty kilos, so he was surprised ... He said, "May Allah do you good, if Allah wills." I said to him, "Please, examine me." He examined me as usual. For the first time, he told me: "All the centers are clean." In addition to what was with me, there is a difference among doctors, and ... now between heart weakness and heart disease ... He was examining me for this disease or heart weakness, and on the other hand, for putrefaction in my stomach. Regarding the heart, he was ... reassured. Regarding the putrefaction, truly his examination is wonderful, correct, and precise. He told me, "By Allah, I see the situation is better, but there is still some ... I don't know, he said putrefaction or something like that." He was truthful. I felt, despite the fasting, but after approximately two months, the remaining putrefaction in the stomach went away. And this ... I truly felt the benefit of this fasting. And among the effects of this heart weakness, I used to go every day, by the grace of Allah, to the Zahiriyyah Library. Sitting in the summer was downstairs, in the winter upstairs. There was a staircase approximately like this and like this. I used to pray with the young men there, and they were few, I would pray Maghrib with them. In the summer in the courtyard, in the winter we would go up to pray in one of the rooms. So when I would go up, I would get tired as if I were an old man.
The student : At that time.

The Shaykh : At that time, so the point is, I could not start the adhan ... and going up is necessary ... until I rest, otherwise my voice would tremble before the attendees. When I was treated with this medicine of fasting, I would climb the stairs normally, there was no fatigue, no trembling of the voice, or anything like that. So I truly felt the benefit, as they say, by touch. We would pray ... five minutes ... if there was fasting, I spoke with some of the brothers ... One of our brothers was afflicted with something resembling madness; I call it intermittent, meaning it is not continuous. He would be sitting in the house ... and the fit would come, and of course, he would not leave anything in the house or in the room without smashing it to pieces. He was treated in many hospitals, including the American University in Beirut, in vain. They subjected him to ... and he did not benefit from anything. And from the many times he visited them, it was as if he had despaired of that treatment. He had hardly heard this experience from me, on the one hand, and I mentioned to him what was in the book of miracles and wonderful experiences, when he said ... I want to try it, but ... it is not easy to continue the fasting ... He fasted for eleven days and stopped, but he told us that he saw a benefit, meaning that ... he began to reduce greatly. He was patient with himself for months, then he returned to fasting, and thus he fasted for forty days in three stages. But the man was cured, so his joy was great. It was as if he vowed to himself to advise everyone he knew who was ill. Deaf, deaf. He told us ... He said, "A young man from my friends came to him complaining about his mother's illness, and that she had reached the point where she was bedridden, unable to move from it even to relieve herself. And despite the fact that she had two daughters who were nurses in the hospital, the matter exhausted them. When he heard this complaint from his friend, he said to him: 'Fast her.' He said to him, 'O Shaykh, what do you mean by fasting her? This is an old woman, we fear she will die. There is nothing but water.' He said, 'Fast her, and you do nothing. Put a glass of water in front of her. If she shouts, she needs food, she needs something, lemon, a cloth ... absolutely do not respond to her, only the water in front of her.' This man ... He said this conversation between us, or the talk between us, 'You are not believing that she will die, so try this experiment on her. ... If she dies ... and if she recovers, you will have gained her.' They heard this talk, and by Allah, they deprived her of everything called food and drink except water ... pure. And the old woman would shout ... After three days, she got up from her bed.
The student : From hunger, she was looking for food.

The Shaykh : ... And after that ... Therefore, he took this second and third experiment. I was the first experiment, he was the second, and the old woman was the third.