The Meaning and
Purpose of Fasting
All India Radio, New Delhi, organized a programme on the evening of 19 August 1978 at 9:30 PM. Its title was “What is Fasting?” It was a half-hour radio discussion in which representatives of three religions were invited to present the concept of fasting according to their respective faiths.
The writer of these lines represented Islam. The other two speakers were: Pandit Sachidanand Shastri (Hindu Dharma) and Archbishop Nasir (Christianity).
The writer was also appointed as the coordinator of this radio discussion. Each speaker explained, in the light of their religion, what fasting is, why it has been made obligatory, and in what form it exists in their faith.
Fasting—called Sawm in Arabic, Vrat in Hindi, and Fasting in English—exists in some form in every religion. Though its duration and method may vary, the practice is present across all traditions.
The reason for this is that fasting is a form of training in self-control (nafs-kashi), and this discipline has always been considered important in every religion. The kind of human being religion aims to shape is one who lives with his self under the control of his reason. Fasting prepares a person for precisely this.
A human being is made up of two parts—body and soul. The body is material and dense; the soul is non-material and subtle. When we constantly fulfil every desire of the body without restriction, the body begins to dominate and suppress the soul. Fasting is a way of putting boundaries on this freedom. It keeps the body in check and enables the soul to take charge.
Both of the other speakers expressed this same idea, each in their own way. What the writer said was that fasting is not only about its outer form. That is, it is not enough for a person to merely abstain from food and drink from morning to evening and consider the purpose of fasting fulfilled. The external form is just a symbol—it represents a deeper kind of spiritual and moral training.
The lesson is that a person must learn, while living in this world, to distinguish between what is right and wrong, lawful and unlawful. He must choose what is right and lawful and keep away from what is wrong and unlawful. This is what ultimately brings success in the everlasting life of the Hereafter.
Fasting, then, is actually a deep principle of life. In the world, a businessman must guard against extravagance. A student must guard his time from being wasted. A laborer must guard against laziness and dishonesty. In this way, a life of balance and discipline is the key to success in this present world. If a person does not protect himself from laziness, wastefulness, indulgence, and misuse of time, he cannot succeed in this world—a world designed as a test.
The same is true for the Hereafter. According to Islam, success in the Hereafter depends on living a fasting-like way of life. A person must adopt a pure and disciplined lifestyle before death to secure success in the life to come. He must guard himself against things that could ruin his eternal life.
Living in this protected way—avoiding those things which may lead to loss in the Hereafter—is the very lesson for which fasting has been made obligatory.
There is another aspect to fasting as well. A person who fasts all day feels the joy of food more deeply at sunset. In the same way, the one who abstains from what God has forbidden in this world will be the one to enjoy the true pleasures of the Hereafter. The fast of the day symbolizes the trials and struggles of worldly life. The evening meal symbolizes the joys and rewards of the life to come.
What is Fasting ?
What is fasting? Fasting is training in self-control. It is an exercise in discipline. For this training, something has been chosen that is among the most essential of all human needs—that is food and water.
In the month of Ramadan, food and water are given up from morning to evening for 30 days so that a person can develop the ability to leave something even when he desires it. The aim is to teach a person to live in such a way that when he takes something, he does so on the basis of principles, and when he gives up something, he does so with the same sense of discipline. His desire should be governed by conscious decision—not disconnected from it.
The act of giving up food and water in the month of fasting is actually a symbolic form of giving up. It does not mean that simply by avoiding food and drink for a fixed number of hours, the purpose of fasting is fulfilled, and after that, a person is free to do whatever he wants. No, the leaving of food and drink during fasting is just the beginning of a greater form of self-restraint. Through this practice of giving up one thing during the month of fasting, a person becomes capable of giving up all other undesirable things throughout the rest of the year.
A person is a social being. He lives in a world surrounded by many kinds of men and women. In the course of these social interactions, unpleasant situations arise. These situations provoke anger and reactive behaviour in a person.
It is to guide a person on what to do—and what not to do—in such situations that fasting has been made obligatory. The lesson of fasting is that in such moments, a person should choose the path of self-restraint. Whenever anger rises in his heart or he feels provoked, he should suppress those emotions. He should be someone who controls his feelings—not someone who expresses them without thought.
Similarly, a person has many kinds of emotions—such as greed, desire, jealousy, pride, arrogance, selfishness, and so on. These emotions are not bad in themselves. In fact, they are the very emotions that bring energy and movement to a person’s life. If these emotions are used within lawful limits, they are beneficial. But if a person begins to act on them freely without any concern for limits, they become a source of harm.
Fasting is a form of training that teaches a person to keep these emotions within proper limits. He should make sure to use these emotions within appropriate bounds. He should set a conscious boundary for how far to go with them. The rule is: as long as these emotions are used for lawful personal benefit, they are acceptable. But when they begin to harm others, he must stop himself from acting on them.
The month of fasting has been described in Hadith as the month of patience. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 7577) This means fasting is a form of training for living a disciplined life. Fasting enables a person to live according to principles, not without restraint. In the month of Ramadan, a person undergoes this training through fasting—and in the rest of the months, he should continue to live by what that training has taught him.
It is mentioned in Hadith: “Whoever fasts but does not give up lying and acting upon lies, then God has no need for him to give up his food and drink.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1903)
This shows that the outward form of fasting is to refrain from food and drink. But the real spirit of fasting is to give up falsehood and other bad actions. Fasting is actually a form of training to avoid evil. If a person follows only the outer aspect of fasting, but does not embody its inner and moral purpose, then such a person’s fast is not valid in the eyes of Islam.
All India Radio, New Delhi, 11 February 1993.
