FASTING: A TRAINING IN THANKSGIVING AND TAQWA
The Quran states: “Believers, fasting has been prescribed for you, just as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard yourself against evil. … so that you may glorify Him for His having guided you and so that you may be grateful to Him.”
(The Quran, 2:183, 185)
From these verses of the Quran we understand that fasting is training of two things at the same time. One, thanksgiving, the other taqwa or righteousness. Food and drink are two great blessings of God. But in normal circumstances man does not realize it. During fasting when he abstains from these things the whole day and then after sunset when he eats and drinks after experiencing great hunger and thirst, only then he realizes how great these blessings of God really are. Overwhelmed with this experience, he expresses his gratitude to God from the innermost recesses of his heart. This inculcates the spirit of thanksgiving in a fasting person.
On the other hand, fasting is a training in taqwa or living a God-fearing life. Taqwa means that man should keep himself away from all those things that God has forbidden in this life and he should do only those things that God has allowed him to do. Being God-fearing means, one refrains from all the things forbidden by God in this worldly life. And he does only what God has permitted him to do. Abstaining from food and drink during the day and eating only during the night is a form of training to make God his guardian. By making man abandon certain things temporarily in the month of Ramadan, he is trained to leave off all those things which God disapproves of in the course of his life in this world.
The temporary deprivation of food and water stresses the importance of these things as divine blessings. It reminds a person that what all one has is from God, Who is the supreme and all-powerful Being, and one day all would be taken away from him. This makes one realize that one is here for a test. It breaks ones arrogance and stubbornness. Fasting makes one realize the reality of life, that is his helplessness on ijz. Man is cut to size. It creates a practical situation when one prays truly from the heart knowing how completely he is dependent on God. Such prayers connect him to the Almighty.
When he is consumed by hunger and thirst, man realizes how weak he really is; he realizes how much he is in need of the succour of God. It is when man experiences this helplessness, ijz which is made manifest during the times when man feels hunger and thirst, that his true self meets God. Thus it is the discovery of the real benefactor that brings along with it immense pleasure and satisfaction. This experience makes him aware of his duties as God’s humble servant. This feeling leads to caution in life. It makes one God-conscious and live a life of piety, taqwa.
Roza is, therefore, an opportunity or the meeting point between man and God. This meeting point is the last stage of helplessness, which makes you realize that God is all-powerful and man is helpless.
