When we seek the purpose of an act of worship, where can we find its answer if not in the Word of Allah the Almighty? Fasting, like prayer, was revealed to us in the Holy Quran with a precise purpose. Let us look at the secrets contained in this act of worship taught by God to His prophet and His Servants, even as it tends today to be reduced, in the minds of some, to a cultural tradition of the countries of the Maghreb and the East.
Why fast? This is the question we ask in this text as the blessed month of Ramadan approaches.
Fasting: a revelation since the dawn of time
In several verses of Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah tells us that He has prescribed for us the fast of the month of Ramadan for particular purposes:
Purpose 1: To attain piety
O you who believe! Fasting (as-Siyam) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain piety(...)" Verse 183, Surah 2
This is not something new. Fasting has always been an act of piety prescribed by Allah through the other revelations, to the other peoples. But always with the same purpose: to become pious, to fear Him.
The word "taqwa" in Arabic comes, among other things, from the word "wiqaaya" which means "protection", "the act of protecting oneself from something".
Allah thus tells us that He prescribed fasting for us so that we may protect ourselves!
"Taqwa" is to worship Allah, our Lord, while being conscious that Allah has His eye upon us, that He sees each of our actions, that nothing escapes Him in what we do to people or to ourselves, in what our own heart contains, our faults, the errors we have committed and whether or not we make efforts to correct them. Thus to fast is to protect oneself from the harm one does to oneself or to others by constantly keeping in mind that Allah possesses absolute knowledge of all our actions, thoughts, intentions and ambitions. He knows and sees what we do, what we do not do, what we look at, what we listen to, what we say, what we think and what we feel.
He, to Him belong the Glory and the Majesty, wants to protect us from that by asking us to fast.
Purpose 2: To feel gratitude toward Allah
Let us remember that fasting was prescribed for us in order to thank our Lord for having guided us onto His Path and to be grateful for it. The way of life we live, sometimes endure, gradually distances us from this awareness of the Greatness of Allah, of His Choice for us.
He allowed us to become, to remain, Muslim, and this should be brought to consciousness, kept in mind, in order to attain gratitude toward Him.
At a time when the word gratitude has become more and more fashionable, and when many are beginning to develop techniques and tricks to become aware of the good fortune of being alive, of being in good health, as if it were something new, in order to finally acquire well-being, it is good to recall that since the first men and the first prophets Allah has told us to remember Him constantly and to be grateful to Him.
Fasting, and all the more so that of the blessed month of Ramadan, is an act of gratitude and of piety above all.
But not only during the month of Ramadan !
Fasting, during this sacred month, meant to make us attain piety, closeness to Him, meant to allow us to remember Him and to proclaim His Greatness, is to be regarded as a springboard for the rest of the year, not an end in itself.
How many months of fasting do we pass through without this spiritual dimension? How many Ramadans have gone by without our having savored their fruits during the rest of the year?
The fast of the month of Ramadan: an intensive training for the steadfast!
If the fast of the blessed month of Ramadan is to be taken seriously, it is because it serves to accustom us to preserving the limbs of our body from sins. Attaining piety or being grateful could not be a recommendation for a single month of the year.
This piety that we try to obtain and to keep during this month is the very piety that we train ourselves to keep for the rest... of our life! May Allah grant it to us all!
Our body is, for months, left, so to speak, to itself, to its daily desires. If the Muslim makes all the efforts needed to preserve his tongue from vulgarity, from lying and other grave attitudes such as backbiting, what about during this month of fasting that is Ramadan?
>>He strives to preserve his tongue for fear that his fast may no longer be valid.
In the same way, what about going out to unlawful places or in the company of people engaging in behaviors little in keeping with the prescriptions of Allah and His Messenger?
>>The Muslim will flee all indecent places, all company harmful to his faith, to his fast. He will forsake bad behaviors and blameworthy acts.
All this, if he holds to it... and does not destroy his fast through heedlessness, as the hadith reports: According to 'Abdallah Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and with his father), the Prophet (may the prayer of Allah and His salutation be upon him) said: "Some who fast have nothing from their fast but hunger and thirst, and some people who pray at night have nothing from the prayer but fatigue. Reported by Tabarani
That is to say that these people have not fulfilled all the conditions of fasting that we have just mentioned, such as avoiding blameworthy acts, and that their night prayer was not performed with the intention of Allah alone, or that the concentration in it was not as required.
The fast of the sacred month of Ramadan is therefore a training in the preservation of one's tongue, of one's feet and hands, and above all in that of one's heart.
Such results cannot collapse once the month of fasting is over!
The Muslim who fasts this sacred month is a little like graduates once their certification is received, or athletes at the finish line. They celebrate the results.
Thus the Muslim, at the end of the month of fasting, celebrates Eid as it should be, to thank Allah for having allowed him to devote his days to praying to Him, praising, reading the Quran and thanking Him, as well as for having allowed him to attend the Tarawih prayers in groups at the mosque.
Once the graduate is certified, does he do the opposite of what he has just learned? Many of us unfortunately do. Sometimes without realizing it.
Fasting, in other words, is abstinence from food, drink, sexual relations and all other physical needs out of love for Allah, in order to draw closer to Him. Allah is Absolute, He has no need of us, or of anything whatsoever. If we dedicate our fast to Him, that does not mean that it brings Him any benefit.
It is because fasting requires from us an effort to control our physical, physiological and psychological needs and desires that it becomes honorable, meritorious.
It is this self-control that is sought during Ramadan, and it must be developed in order to use it for the whole rest of the year. Instead of focusing on the fact that it is for Allah that we must do it, it would be more worthwhile to focus on what He teaches us in the Quran:
for a set number of days. Whoever among you is ill or on a journey shall fast an equal number of other days. But for those who can do so only (with great difficulty), there is a compensation: feeding a poor person. And if anyone does more of his own accord, it is better for him; but to fast is better for you, if only you knew !
Verse 184, Surah 2
It is a tremendous blessing offered to us on the part of Allah, azza wa jal, to purify us, to improve us in our religion, in our conduct, and which raises us in degrees with Him, for life is full of pitfalls, the devil will never cease to try the patience of the pious. It is worth knowing why fasting was revealed, in order to learn how to train ourselves to become even more steadfast, for Allah truly loves the steadfast.
Other aspects of fasting will be treated in other articles, while we wait for Allah to grant us to be among them and to allow us to attain piety during this month of Ramadan and the ones that follow, so as to spend a year of worship drawing us each year ever more firmly closer to our Lord. Amin
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