NO food and no drink from sunset until sunrise for a whole month. Can you do this? May seem crazy to some people but for Muslims this is routine. Every year millions of Muslims across the world are fasting in a special month known in the Islamic calendar as the month of Ramadan. For Muslims this month rivals every other month purely because of its psychological and mental benefits as well as the patience one attains when fasting.
Fasting isn’t just about letting your stomach groan at you by remaining hungry. It’s about fighting ones inner desires, lusts and passions and keeping them at bay, whether they be eating chocolate (or any food for that matter), watching movies, fulfilling your sexual desires or even playing too much on your Nintendo Wii. The main purpose of fasting is to direct the heart away from all the unnecessary attachments of this world and to more of a closer attachment of God. Through our thoughts and actions a person has to try attain purity and hopefully your development of character and personality in this month will show through out the rest of the year.
And fasting for a whole day isn’t necessarily easy when you think about it, especially as the days are becoming longer each year. Being a student doesn’t help either as I will always see people eating in front of me, whether it is in the cafeteria where I usually grab my lunch or just outside near the town centre. I see the food, I want to eat the food, but I won’t eat the food, solely because God commanded me not to eat the food. This also goes for the bad habits one may have such as slandering, backbiting and lying.
But why is this month so important to Muslims? Well one of the main reasons is that its believed the Holy Quran was sent down in this particular month and so muslims are obliged to spend it in worship throughout the day, maximising in every supplication and worship towards God. Ramadan for Muslims is an exciting month in which everyone is in anticipation for since the rewards are great, both spiritually and physically. Its just like the feeling you get when waiting for a new film to come out or a computer game. No words can describe how good it feels to complete a day's fast or the joy and the feeling of festivity when the day's fasting is over.
For me this holy month is the only month whereby I can really have an x-ray of myself. Its like a month of training for me. Not really the, 'going into the gym and lifting 100kg' training, but more of the body and soul. I look and reflect on all the things I take for granted, such as my food, money,education, nice warm house, nice cup of tea, nice toast, nice this and nice that - the list is endless. When everyone's around the table just about to break the fast, the fragrance of the food hits yours mouth like strawberry and chocolate swirling in your mouth. Its that good. Since you remain hungry throughout the day, just about anything you eat will make you feel good. This is when your hunger is at its peak and that’s when you know what people in the third world countries are feeling like who are literally living in starvation because they are so poor.
Aside from the religious reasons and making you feel pity for the poor the health benefits of fasting are immense. If done properly, which means without overindulgence at the time of breaking fast, meaning saying a no no to those oily samosas, kebabs, burgers, parkoras (and again the list is endless), fasting can make you lose weight, control addictions and help your natural defence system making you heal much faster.
With all these benefits of fasting I find it weird to see many people don't fast. Believe it not though everyone fasts during the night anyway since the term 'breakfast' literally means 'breaking your fast' becasue you don't eat anything for night.
I have to admit though as the fasting hours get longer every year and the surprising remarks you get from people who are not fasting get funnier every year, the month seems to pass by so quickly. It just shows that rather than counting down each day in anticipation for Eid, we should really make each day count. That's when we'll really benefit from this 'month of training'.
