Spirit of Islam, Mar-Apr 2024

The month of fasting is a month to help us in our spiritual pursuits by rising above the materialistic pursuits. By abstinence from even basic needs of food and water for a few hours one tries to keep desires under control and undertakes the hardship voluntarily. In bustling markets, grandiose offices, and opulent buildings, he is not really guided by deliberate thought. Rather, he is being guided by inflated ideas of his own needs, desires, longings and ambitions to achieve fame and high status in this world. For this reason, these activities cannot be considered as being directed towards the purpose, which sets man apart from the animals and lends him a higher distinction. Man’s greater dignity cannot be based only on a purpose which emanates from inner desires and pressures of environment. His true purpose in life can only be one which reflects the nobler side of his character; one which represents him as the superior being that he is. Ramadan, the month of fasting, is the month which reminds us of our true purpose in life. Life of this world is temporary. We all witness death every day. Life is so unpredictable. However, death is not the end of a person’s life. It is only the beginning of the next stage of life. Death is that interim stage when man leaves this temporary world of today for the eternal world of tomorrow. He goes out of the temporary accommodation of the world to enter the eternal resting place of the Hereafter. The coming of this stage in the Hereafter is the greatest certainty in one’s life. No one can save himself from this fate in the Hereafter. In the above context, the month of fasting is a month to help us in our spiritual pursuits by rising above the materialistic pursuits. By abstinence from even basic needs of food and water for a few hours, one tries to keep desires under control and undertakes the hardship voluntarily. During the rest of the eleven months this training should assist in not immersing oneself in just materialistic goals. In the following pages of this magazine there are articles elucidating the spirit of the fasting which will instil in us sincerity to live a God-oriented life with a staunch belief in our accountability in the Hereafter as to how we spent our life on earth. May God give us the true benefit of this month and save us from just observing it in a superficial form as witnessed in the present culture! It is a month of abstinence and control, not a month of indulgence after a few hours of ritualistic hunger and thirst. o