Ramadan; food for thought

As the month of Ramadan rapidly approaches, I have often found myself faced with the question: why do you fast? The easy answer is this: because my religion commands me to do so. Because my mother instilled it in me when I was young. Because I have known no different.

Yes, but why. The pivotal, underlying question is why has God commanded His believers to fast - and the answer is, quite simply, to prove our faith.

Fasting is the third of the five pillars of Islam, all of which have to be believed and acted upon for one's faith to be intact. They define what it means to be Muslim.

The Five Pillars of Islam

1. Firm belief in Tawḥīd - the Oneness of God. The concept around which Islam revolves.

2. Salah - praying the requisite five times a day, every day

3. Sawm - fasting during the month of Ramadan

4. Zakat - giving away 2.5% of one's wealth every year into charity

5. Hajj - the Pilgrimage to the Holy City of Makkah

The common theme? Submission.

The pinnacle of Islam itself is complete and utter submission to God. To remember that our greater purpose in this world is to serve Him in worship and good deeds. It makes sense, therefore, for its five pillars to echo this sentiment: to abandon the distractions of the world five times a day to bow down to the One who controls those distractions; to abandon food and drink and human desire to feed the soul that craves its Creator; to abandon our wealth in the path of the One from whom wealth is gifted; to abandon the hierarchy of race and skin colour to prostrate as one, a nation united, in front of the One who created us in diversity. 

And, of these pillars, arguably the biggest test of submission is the fasting.

Fasting has been singled out as the single act of worship that is connected to God Himself. See, it is not just fasting by depriving the body of food and water. It is fasting of the tongue, the mind, the limbs. To avoid not just nutrition, but to avoid the worldly desires that damage the soul...that slowly chip away at it until it is broken. Controlling the tongue by straying from foul language, lying, back-biting. Controlling the ears by not listening to music or idle talk. Controlling the eyes by not watching that which should not be watched. Controlling the mind in the remembrance of the Almighty and thinking only the best of people. Controlling our actions, training them in the path of good. Purifying our character and cleansing our hearts - training ourselves to be the best version of ourselves, for ourselves. And for others. 

You see the level of self-sacrifice it takes? How much one has to give up. The level of dedication and faith it requires to, quite literally, give up the world in search of something so much greater. And that is why God Himself decrees its reward - it is that highly significant. It is placed on a pedestal because its value is far superior to that of anything else. Fasting isn't just a detox for the vessel in which our soul resides; it is a detox for the soul itself. It forces us to embody unending patience, keeps us grounded by cutting the materialistic threads to which we find ourselves tied, anchoring our faith to something much more substantial. It teaches us compassion as we feel just a fraction of the hunger that those in poverty suffer. It is a month of discipline and self-control, a clean slate and second chance for so many of us to give up our personal vices. To overcome our private struggles. To challenge ourselves to live and do better. 

And so, to all the people who marvel at how millions of us are able to not eat or drink over the course of a month, to those of you who wonder why we anticipate it in excitement and not dread, to those of you who, understandably, think we torture ourselves for no reason and see it as a form of punishment, understand that Ramadan is a gift...it is a beautiful journey that thrives on humanity, redemption, and sacrifice, and one of the biggest sources of pride in being a Muslim is knowing that we have been specifically chosen for the ultimate form of submission - and knowing that the world can't really break us, because we are stronger than the world.