Allah says addressing the believers:
“O you who believe fasting has been prescribed for you as it has been prescribed for those who came before you in order that you may attain taqwa.” (2:183)
This verse teaches us that there is a relationship between fasting and between attaining taqwa. And if we look at the linguistic meaning of the word fasting (imsak), which means to refrain from something, we learn something about the essential nature of taqwa.
Taqwa is about refraining. Yes, it is also about doing, but it is about refraining from doing things that are displeasing to Allah Almighty.
It is about refraining from those egotistical impulses and the demonic insinuations that will then prevent us from also doing some other type of good.
Ramadan & Taqwa
So the school of Ramadan is a practical way for us to learn taqwa because we get used to leaving something that is permissible.
And by getting used to leaving something that is beloved to us and is permissible for us to do, it prepares us then to be able to have taqwa in other aspects of our life. We can learn to restrain; and we can learn to abstain.
And we can learn this great lesson from this blessed month is that when we transition out of Ramadan, we will find we will be successful not only in our religious life but also in our worldly life.
Because self-constraint is one of the greatest traits that we can have that will benefit us through and through in all of our endeavors and everything that we do that may we learn that the relationship between fasting and taqwa.
May Allah bless us to be from the elect of those who fast and from the elect people of taqwa.
