THE REALITY OF FASTING
The Quran states, “… whoever of you is present in that month, let him fast; but he who is ill or on a journey shall fast a similar number of days later on. God desires ease for you, not hardship. He desires you to fast the whole month, so that you may glorify Him for His having guided you and so that you may be grateful to Him.” (The Quran, 2:185)
The word ‘grateful’ is related to fasting in the above verse of the Quran. Fasting, essentially, serves as training in inculcating the spirit of thanksgiving in a believer. Food and water are great blessings of God, yet man is incapable of attaching due importance to them. While fasting, he goes hungry and thirsty the whole day, then at sunset, in a state of extreme hunger and thirst, he eats and drinks to his fill. He then realizes through his own experience how great are the blessings of God which are present in the form of food and water. This experience produces boundless feelings of gratitude towards his Lord in a person.
Fasting in the whole month of Ramadan means abstaining from food and drink for the whole of every day of that month. For eleven months of the year, man experiences what food and drink are and for one month of the year he experiences what it is like to not eat or drink. It is the experience of a life without food, after a life with food. It is the experience of a disciplined life after a life of freedom.
Food is the symbol of God having built a great life-support system in this world especially for man. In this vast universe, there are innumerable stars and planets, but this life support system is found only on the earth. The month of fasting is, in fact, a reminder of this great blessing.
The month of fasting reminds us that without this life support system, man would be completely helpless. He would experience the ultimate state of helplessness. Then there would be no water on earth for him to drink. There would be no food for him to eat. There would be no oxygen for him to breathe. There would be no sunlight to light his path. There would be no gravity to enable him to build his civilization. The month of Ramadan reminds man of the importance of the life support system, so that he is filled with gratitude to God.
Fasting (roza) reminds man that without this life support system the whole of life would be destroyed. Therefore, fasting brings about both the feeling of being God-fearing and the feeling of being grateful. Undoubtedly, another name for Islam is to live with these feelings.
