10. FASTING

10. Fasting ~ 27 ~ permissiveness. What the speed-breaker does for the speeding motorist, fasting does for the devotee. By having a curb put on his various desires – for one month at a time man is trained to lead a life of self – restraint for the whole year, making no attempt to exceed the limits set by God. What man does by fasting is engage him more and more in the remembrance and worship of God, and in the recitation of the Qur’an. Thus fasting serves as a strategy to increase the efficacy of worship. In this way God accepts our worship in its heightened form. Fasting is, in short, a training course. Its purpose is to place man on a special spiritual plane for one month so that he may be better able to lead the life of a true devotee of God and a true lover of humanity.