Sawm: Fasting Teaches Restraint

SAWM Fasting Teaches Restraint Fasting Teaches Restraint Fasting reinforces moral discipline that enables a person to lead his life as a worshipper of God and as a well-wisher of all mankind. F asting is a form of worship which is performed annually. Each year in the month of Ramazan (the ninth month of the lunar calendar), fasting is observed for the whole month. During the period of fasting, at God’s behest, the believer abstains from eating from dawn to sundown. He moreover engages himself in more profound worship and remembrance of God. This act of fasting is done so that a person’s materialism may be minimized and his spirituality may make progress. He is then enabled to lead a spiritual life in this world. Fasting awakens in a person the feeling of gratitude. This ritual deprivation of food and water highlights the importance of these blessings. Then when he has experienced hunger and thirst and eats only in the evening, he realizes how precious are the food and water which have been provided to him by God. This experience greatly increases his feelings of gratitude. Fasting reinforces moral discipline. By curtailing the use of certain things, a person is conditioned to leading a life of moral constraint in this world.