Healing Through Fasting

God Almighty summed up the benefit of fasting in a few eloquent words, timeless through the ages: “And that you fast is better for you.” Four words that nevertheless encompass all the aspects from which we can benefit from fasting, since the Holy Quran was revealed to the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, our master Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and until God inherits the earth and all upon it. And not only the benefit to the body and the many diseases that have afflicted it, which have swept through many regions of the world and become epidemics, such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and others, which afflict people for many reasons, chiefly urban life, comfort and unwillingness to exert any effort, together with abundant food saturated with fats or sugars that accumulates layer upon layer inside the body and turns the individual into a case of obesity, bearing in mind that obesity is the main gateway that opens the gates of hell, I mean disease, upon a person. The body is bound to be struck by diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, joint stiffness and pain, and to enter into countless problems and crises in the digestive and circulatory systems, with all the body’s systems suffering. We do not separate the physical aspects from the psychological ones, because the human being is a whole, and “if one organ complains, the rest of the organs respond with sleeplessness and fever”, as our noble Messenger, peace be upon him, told us in one of his noble hadiths. The attempt to trace the benefits of fasting, in both its physical and psychological aspects, is an effort of personal judgement that may succeed by the grace of God or may not, but I do not regret this step, which had been on my mind for years and which I tried again and again to avoid writing down, to no avail, until God arranged the circumstances and the information that helped me complete this work, which I undertake first for the sake of God Almighty and, God willing, second to serve Islam. Physically, we find, and for some time now, that the literature of treatment in the West has turned to fasting, that is, abstaining from food and drink, with only water permitted in any quantity, for long periods. Fasting has achieved useful and important results for many patients who armed themselves first with willpower and then entered into this unique experience as a last resort to overcome illness and ease their pain.