Excellence of Ramadan Fasting

Fasting, or sawm, is one of the most important obligations in Islam. Every adult Muslim, provided that he or she is in full possession of his or her faculties, is obligated to fast in the holy month of Ramadan. It is one of the five pillars of Islam and is prescribed for Muslims as an act of worship and a form of spiritual purification through charity and good deeds. Allah Almighty says, “Believers, fasting has been made mandatory for you as it was made mandatory for the people before you, so that you may have fear of God.”

After prayer, the second obligatory duty which every Muslim is required to perform is that of fasting during the month of Ramadan – the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. In Islam, fasting is primarily an institution for spiritual discipline and self-control. It is, in fact, an exercise in religious devotion in the form of cheerful and willing renunciation, for a definite period, of all the appetites.

During Ramadan, a Muslim neither eats a grain of food nor drinks a drop of water from dawn to dusk, even how delicious the food is or how hungry or thirsty he may feel. But it is important to mention that fasting is not only about avoiding food or drink; rather, it is a practice of self-discipline and self-control. In the deeper meanings, fasting becomes a period of meditation, self-restraint, repentance and spiritual recuperation.