Fasting is a major part of Islam and is amongst its main pillars. Fasting is a way of expressing love and devotion for one’s creator. Prayer (salaah) is an expression of one’s humility; a person stands before his creator, bows before Him, and puts his head on the ground in complete submission and humility.

Fasting is an expression of one’s love and devotion for Allah. A person stops eating, drinking, and leaves the worldly distractions just to please Allah. He has one thing on his mind- that is succeed in attaining the pleasure of Allah. Different types of food and drinks are available, and he is surrounded by them and opportunities to eat and drink them are plenty; his mouth and lips become dry, yet not a single morsel of food, or drop of a drink goes down his throat throughout the day.

After fasting though the day, a person is tired and fatigued, and the body wants to rest, but the order of Allah is there to perform extra prayer (salaah). This prayer is no ordinary prayer, rather it is long and tiring; 20 rakaats of Taraweeh.

A person is tired by the fasting of the day and the prayer at night, and sleeps for a few hours. Then once again the order of Allah comes to wake up and eat, and a person fast for another day. This routine repeats itself during the entire month.

Throughout the month, we leave our normal routines and perform extra actions that will bring a closer to Allah. This is a way of expressing our love and devotion to Allah. It is a way of disconnecting with other things and building a stronger connection with Him. A person is ready to loose other things, but not Allah.

This is the reason that Allah the He Himself will give the reward of fasting.

The purpose of Fasting

Allah says in the quran: Fasting has been made obligatory on you, just as it was done on those before you, so that you may attain taqwa.

Taqwa means to control one’s nafs and desires. The desires of the stomach and the nafs open doors to great sins. Most sins can be connected to these two. A person will steal, rob, kill, take other’s rights away, eat haram and ignore the limits and boundaries set by Allah, just to feed his stomach. In a similar way, a person will fornicate, commit adultery, look at things he should not be looking at etc just to satisfy his sexual desires.

Through the fast, Allah orders us to stay away from things that are normally permissible. When a person is able to control his desires from the permissible, by the end of the month a person will also be able to control his desires from the impermissible. As a result, a person will be able to fulfil the commands of Allah and stay away from sins for the other eleven months of the year.

May Allah give us the ability to make the most out of this Ramadhan, draw closer to Him, and make us from the mutaqeen. Aameen.

Article by Hafizullah Mahar