Why Fasting Is Important

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and it is when all muslims fast from sunrise all the way to sunset, An important thing that all muslims know when fasting is why they fast what is their purpose?

Why Fasting Is Important
Anas Qureshi
,
Denver
In The Name of Allah The Most Beneficent And The Most Merciful.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and it is when all muslims fast from sunrise all the way to sunset, An important thing that all muslims know when fasting is why they fast what is their purpose?

Fasting is the fourth pillar of Islam

Allah SWT says in the Quran,  “You who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may be mindful of Allah” (2:183).

Purpose of fasting in Islam

To develop and strengthen our powers of self-control, so that we can resist wrongful desires and bad habits, and therefore “guard against evil” . In fasting, by refraining from the natural human urges to satisfy one’s appetite, we are exercising our ability of self-restraint, so that we can then apply it to our everyday life to bring about self-improvement.

To attain nearness and closeness to Allah so that He becomes a reality in our lives. As we bear the rigours of fasting purely for the sake of following a Divine commandment, knowing and feeling that He can see all our actions however secret, it intensifies the consciousness of Allah in our hearts, resulting in a higher spiritual experience.

Fasting is the fourth pillar of Islam

To learn to refrain from usurping other’s rights and belongings. In fasting we voluntarily give up even what is rightfully ours; how can then we think of taking what is not ours but belongs to someone else?

Charity and generosity is especially urged during Ramadan. We learn to give, and not to take. The deprivation of fasting makes us sympathise with the suffering of others, and desirous of alleviating it; and it makes us remember the blessings of life which we normally take for granted.

Fasting in Islam does not just consist of refraining from eating and drinking, but from every kind of selfish desire and wrong-doing. The fast is not merely of the body, but essentially that of the spirit as well. The physical fast is a symbol and outward expression of the real, inner fast.

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