Fasting has a positive impact on the individual. Fasting is ibadat that teaches self-control. A fasting person is able to control the food instinct, perhaps the most powerful human instinct. The sense of self-control gained is extendable to other situations of temptation to evil or when facing difficulties. Thus fasting is described as protection, al saum junnat.

Fasting helps in control of the sex drive. Fasting is an exercise and training in patience, it helps control of aggression. A fasting person who is insulted does not respond in kind but just says ‘I am fasting’. Fasting helps control the tongue; a fasting person who does not achieve this control gets no rewards from the fast

Fasting also teaches compassion for the poor and the hungry in a practical way. The wealthy who fast taste of hunger and can appreciate the cry for help from the poor and less privileged. Without this obligatory fasting the wealthy would never taste real hunger.

Fasting does not make the body suffer to attain spiritual benefit. The concept of ascetism in this sense is alien to the Islamic creed. There is no spiritual advantage in punishing or persecuting the body or causing it any harm. The rights of the body must be respected in fasting. The Law provides guidelines on fasting for those who may suffer from physiological imbalances. The sick, the young, the travellers, pregnant women, menstruating women, breast-feeding mothers, and any other person for whom fasting is an extra burden are excused from fasting or are asked to fast at a different time when they are physiologically competent. The law also provides for protection of conjugal rights of spouses. A Muslim is permitted access with his wife or husband during the night.

Fasting also has health benefits. It purifies the body. There are several medical advantages of fasting. Abundant epidemiological evidence has proved that diet is a co-factor in heart diseases and cancer. People with excessive intake of certain types of foods are at increased risk for these diseases. In all such cases there is weak will-power to control appetite for food. Fasting teaches appetite control. Its advantages should not be looked at only as deprivation of food for a limited time. The focus should be looked on the long-term benefits that a fasting person gets from strengthening will-power and stopping eating or smoking even if they feel like to eat more.

Ramadan is therefore a time of stock-taking when a person can look back in his her life when he or she will be proud to say both spiritual and physical, he is better that he was. Alhamdullilah. Ramadan Mubarak!