Allah Has said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint. (Quran 2:184)
It is pretty clearly mentioned in the verse above that Fasting coach self-restraint (Taqwaah). The word Taqwaah has been repeatedly used in Quran and the commonest translation done is fear and fright; but in reality it is not about fear and fright. To understand Taqwaah one must consider this example;
suppose that there is a barbwire/thorny way and the person has to pass it, in doing so there is possibility that he might get injured because of the thorns. So to pass the thorny way in such a manner that these may stay where they are but he does not injure himself; this strategy and planning is called Taqwaah. You actually plan to cross the thorny way and escaping any damage. No doubt it has the element of fear and fright but it is the of the strategy remaining incomplete due to some deficiency in it.
Similarly, life – the whole life; is a continuous conveyer belt full of thorns and things that can either inflict damage to you or bring you closer to damage. To pass through this conveyer belt one should device a strategy in such a way that it keeps on moving the way it is but it does not harm you. According to Quran, we will learn this effective strategy - Taqwaah from Fasting.
When people eat heartily a particular kind of revolt, in the shape of energy, spread in the body after they have digested the food. This energy tempts human being to do something. And because bad and evil things have comparatively more attraction and pull, so because of this energy human being gets more inclined towards it. Human being instead of devoting this energy towards something beneficial for him loses his footing fast for something that is not good for him in the long run. All the reasonable individuals have agreed that once you have packed your stomach with food the energy from it originates the instigating force in particular; this instigating force is one such energy which is present in every part and everywhere in our bodies. Besides many other things this it invigorate a specific energy; in simple words and in scientific language as well this force is called sex and the oomph that we get from food prompts it.
Thus the pious people reached the conclusion, after experimenting all of their lives, that when they didn’t fulfilled the demand of the stomach and remained hungry the additional energy which instigates sex in particular and other various bad deeds definitely diminished. The body got a little enervate and there was a decrease in the energy produced inside the body and because of it the instigating force and sex in particular decreased. So they thought that if we can achieve this benefit by controlling the demands of one part of the body i.e. stomach; then why not try to check the demands of all parts of the body either individually or in totality and provide them as much energy as is necessary for their normal function. Because if they get just a little more energy than what is required for their function they will go astray without any rationale and will do something which can harm the human being in the long run. Some of the forces are the power of eyes, ears, tongue, hands, brain and heart.
The brain when starts thinking with vigor it unnecessary go off track and imagine things which it should not be doing. If the eyes have full energy they try to see things they should not be seeing or which is not their real task. And if we can somehow reduce the energy supplied to these body parts then as a result the excitement of instigating force will weaken. In this manner when the energy diminishes the focus remain on just one thing, “how I have to pass through life without causing any damage to myself. This is called Taqwaah – self restraint.
The practical implementation of fasting can easily be summarized in the following two lines:
“To abstain only from food and drink is child’s play. One must abstain from idle pleasures and unlawful acts, not from eating the lawful food. When a man safeguard himself from sins all his actions become fast.”
We should keep this in mind that the fast we keep in the holy month of Ramadan are just stepping stone and nothing more than that and we should not confine ourselves to this, instead move forward with the help of the stepping stones towards the rather bigger stones. In other words we should not restrict ourselves to just one month of fasting (Ramadan) and be a child forever; rather we should apply the spirit of Taqwaah, which we learn from fasting, in our lives 24/7/365 and grow up to be an adult. Allah want us to learn self-restraint (Taqwaah) from fasting and live our life by it for our own benefit and success. When you guard yourself from sin all your deeds become fasts and then if you eat or refrain from food and drink it becomes a secondary thing. It is rather pertinent to mention here that we must not stop the obligatory fasting till the time we have reached the stage where all our deeds have become fasts and it is up to you that how fast you reach this stage in your life.
By: Muhammad Kamran Rifat
Allah Has said:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint. (Quran 2:184)
It is pretty clearly mentioned in the verse above that Fasting coach self-restraint (Taqwaah). The word Taqwaah has been repeatedly used in Quran and the commonest translation done is fear and fright; but in reality it is not about fear and fright. To understand Taqwaah one must consider this example; suppose that there is a barbwire/thorny way and the person has to pass it, in doing so there is possibility that he might get injured because of the thorns. So to pass the thorny way in such a manner that these may stay where they are but he does not injure himself; this strategy and planning is called Taqwaah. You actually plan to cross the thorny way and escaping any damage. No doubt it has the element of fear and fright but it is the of the strategy remaining incomplete due to some deficiency in it.
Similarly, life – the whole life; is a continuous conveyer belt full of thorns and things that can either inflict damage to you or bring you closer to damage. To pass through this conveyer belt one should device a strategy in such a way that it keeps on moving the way it is but it does not harm you. According to Quran, we will learn this effective strategy - Taqwaah from Fasting.
When people eat heartily a particular kind of revolt, in the shape of energy, spread in the body after they have digested the food. This energy tempts human being to do something. And because bad and evil things have comparatively more attraction and pull, so because of this energy human being gets more inclined towards it. Human being instead of devoting this energy towards something beneficial for him loses his footing fast for something that is not good for him in the long run. All the reasonable individuals have agreed that once you have packed your stomach with food the energy from it originates the instigating force in particular; this instigating force is one such energy which is present in every part and everywhere in our bodies. Besides many other things this it invigorate a specific energy; in simple words and in scientific language as well this force is called sex and the oomph that we get from food prompts it.
Thus the pious people reached the conclusion, after experimenting all of their lives, that when they didn’t fulfilled the demand of the stomach and remained hungry the additional energy which instigates sex in particular and other various bad deeds definitely diminished. The body got a little enervate and there was a decrease in the energy produced inside the body and because of it the instigating force and sex in particular decreased. So they thought that if we can achieve this benefit by controlling the demands of one part of the body i.e. stomach; then why not try to check the demands of all parts of the body either individually or in totality and provide them as much energy as is necessary for their normal function. Because if they get just a little more energy than what is required for their function they will go astray without any rationale and will do something which can harm the human being in the long run. Some of the forces are the power of eyes, ears, tongue, hands, brain and heart.
The brain when starts thinking with vigor it unnecessary go off track and imagine things which it should not be doing. If the eyes have full energy they try to see things they should not be seeing or which is not their real task. And if we can somehow reduce the energy supplied to these body parts then as a result the excitement of instigating force will weaken. In this manner when the energy diminishes the focus remain on just one thing, “how I have to pass through life without causing any damage to myself. This is called Taqwaah – self restraint.
The practical implementation of fasting can easily be summarized in the following two lines:
“To abstain only from food and drink is child’s play. One must abstain from idle pleasures and unlawful acts, not from eating the lawful food. When a man safeguard himself from sins all his actions become fast.”
We should keep this in mind that the fast we keep in the holy month of Ramadan are just stepping stone and nothing more than that and we should not confine ourselves to this, instead move forward with the help of the stepping stones towards the rather bigger stones. In other words we should not restrict ourselves to just one month of fasting (Ramadan) and be a child forever; rather we should apply the spirit of Taqwaah, which we learn from fasting, in our lives 24/7/365 and grow up to be an adult. Allah want us to learn self-restraint (Taqwaah) from fasting and live our life by it for our own benefit and success. When you guard yourself from sin all your deeds become fasts and then if you eat or refrain from food and drink it becomes a secondary thing. It is rather pertinent to mention here that we must not stop the obligatory fasting till the time we have reached the stage where all our deeds have become fasts and it is up to you that how fast you reach this stage in your life.
By: Muhammad Kamran Rifat (wateen.net)
