AlHamdulillaah, we are once more blessed with another opportunity to live and experience the bounties of the Holy Month of Ramadhan. While many of us fast and pray Taraaweeh in this month, it is even more important to understand the purpose of fasting Inshaa Allaah. There is a wisdom behind every act in Islam, no matter how big or small. In time we may know the wisdom behind some acts, and for others we may never know. Salaat, the five daily prayers for instance, is a daily training for purifying a believer and reminding him that he is a member in a community of believers.
Fasting, on the other hand, is an annual institution containing all conceivable attributes for human excellence. It helps piety and is training for the body and soul, a renewal of life, encouraging the spirit of sharing and giving. The following are some of the general benefits: Self-Restraint (Taqwaa) Allah (SWT) states: "O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you that you may (learn) self restraint." (Al-Qur`an, 2:183) This verse indicates the first lesson or wisdom to be gained by fasting: Self-restraint, (Taqwa) or the fear of Allah (SWT). That is to say, fasting instills in the heart the essence of consciousness of the Creator. Which leads to a moral courage both in secret and in public by guiding the heart (the seat of emotions) from spoilage and moral indecency.
Fasting instills Taqwaa, and does so by controlling two aspects of the human body, which are the root causes of human downfall. Namely the stomach and the private parts. The human body is constructed with the need to please the two of them and, in the process; man transgresses the rights of other fellow human beings, and even violates Allah's (SWT) Commandments. Fasting raises the level of Taqwaa, thus, eliminating the chances to commit sins, which are detrimental to life itself.
One of the most benefiting factors of fasting is that its observer is able to control or change his or her old or so called `unbreakable' habits. The reason being is that human life is an embodiment of acquired habits. To change or control a habit is to wage a war on oneself. The believer cannot wage a war and hope to defeat an enemy if he cannot even wage a war against his own desires. Thus, the fasting person is admitted to the compulsory training opened only in Ramadan. The learning in this school is obligatory and succeeding or scoring high is mandatory, otherwise it is like one has never entered.
The Prophet (PBUH) said: "Many a faster receives naught from his fast except the pain of hunger and thirst."
And how does Ramadan fasting helps control habits? The answer is simple. The two most important habits are eating and drinking. An average person eats three meals a day, 21 meals a week. The way the fast is structured, with its basic and drastic alteration of eating habits, a fasting person takes only light meals early in the morning and late in the evening. If a believer can do that then it will undoubtedly be easy for him or her to control other bad habits forbidden in Islam. If one can control his tongue, hands, and all the other parts of the body for a month, then it will be easy for him to apply the same training for the rest of the year Inshaa Allaah.
May Allaah help us to benefit from the lessons taught and learnt in this Holy Month of Ramadhan. (AMEEN)
********* Allah Knows Best************