Fasting: A multi-faceted healing tool
Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
Fasting is a spiritual practice that makes you closer to God/Allah. Fasting is a multi-faceted healing tool. It affects an individual on all levels, be it physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Keeping a fast is an integral part of the Indian culture and tradition. It basically connotes willingly abstaining oneself from eating certain or any kind of food, drink or both. Fasting allows one a break from materialism and shifts focus to the heart and soul.
It “interrupts” one’s daily routine and breaks their connection to the things they are so used to easily having. Fasting sharpens our spiritual awareness so that we can connect to God/Allah.
Our religious scriptures state fasting is not only a part of worship, but a great instrument for inculcating self-discipline too. Though people in India both Hindus and Muslims may keep a fast for varied reasons, the most important ones pertain to religion and spiritual aspects.
Fasting is an exercise in self-restraint. It’s seen as a way to physically and spiritually detoxify by kicking impulses like morning coffee, smoking and midday snacking. The spiritual purpose of fasting is the surrender, the submission to a higher authority, which is the creator.
It is said that though the fast is most beneficial to the health, it is regarded principally as a method of self purification. By cutting oneself off from worldly comforts, even for a short time, a fasting person gains true sympathy with those who go hungry as well as growth in one’s spiritual life.
The motivation should be centered on God/Allah and a relationship with Him, not on our body or our relationship to others. Fasting is one of the pillars of Islam. In Islam, it is said that Muhammad began a practice fasting quite regularly, and initiated a type of fasting which today we call intermittent fasting. To the Muslim faith, fasting develops self-restraint, self-discipline, and improves manners. Fasting thus becomes a spiritual shield, which protects an individual from lustful desires and sinful behavior.
The word ‘Ramzan’ is Persian, against ‘Ramadan’ which has Arab roots. It comes from ‘ramad’, denoting an object intensely heated by the sun. Linguistic scholars say this holy month was named Ramadan because it “burns the sins of the faithful”. Ramadan is a time to detach from worldly pleasures and focus on one’s prayers.
The spiritual significance of fasting is being forgotten today as man is losing contact with his inner being. Nevertheless the science of fasting, as preserved in the Vedas, Shastras and Quran, is a method of purification which can aid man in his mundane and spiritual life. Prophet Muhammad, said: “When one of you is fasting, he should abstain from indecent acts and unnecessary talk, and if someone begins an obscene conversation or tries to pick an argument, he should simply tell him, ‘I am fasting.”
Fasting is a way to demonstrate to God/Allah and to ourselves that we are serious about our relationship with Him. At the same time, fasting without the right attitude does not touch the heart of God/Allah. Fasting is challenging, but it a spiritual workout that weakens the body and strengthens the soul.
(The author is a columnist and hails from Jodhpur Tekra Ahmedabad)
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