The real essence of fasting

Consequently, the essential meaning of fasting can be explained as follows. It is the emancipation of the human soul from all forms of slavery: from the slavery of life and its requirements; from the slavery of the body and its needs; from the slavery of the soul and its lusts; from the slavery of whims; from the slavery of fear with all its forms until the human soul finds perfect freedom, the freedom of existence, freedom of will, and freedom of action.

To me, emancipation of the Muslim soul is the objective of fasting which is ordained by Allah the Almighty be it obligatory or voluntary. Through experiencing these meanings of fasting, a Muslim should realize that Allah made him successor upon the earth to establish the right, to judge between people with justice and to refrain from being humiliated by anyone or for anything whatsoever as Allah honored him by declaring him a vicegerent to steward the earth.

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Allah the Almighty guided us to an aspect of this meaning as He made fasting equal to the emancipation of slaves in three of His Ordainments in the Ever-Glorious Qur’an.

First, He, Glory be His, ordained that anyone who kills a faithful person by mistake should set a believing human being free and should hand the blood money to the victim’s family. If one cannot afford of freeing a slave, {then he shall instead fast two consecutive months as a repentance ordained by God!} (An-Nisa’ 4:92)

Second, He, Glory be His, made those who sinfully estrange themselves from their wives with the mere pronouncement: “You are prohibited to me for marital relations as is my own mother’s backside,” then they retreat what they have said, they must free a bondservant before they and their wives touch each other in intimacy,

{But for one who [commits this offense] yet cannot find such means of atonement, then he shall instead fast two consecutive months, before they touch each other in intimacy…} (Al-Mujadilah 58:4)

Third, He, Glory be His, made the expiation for one’s oath setting a slave free, {But if one of you does not find the means to make an offering, then fasting three days…} (Al-Baqarah 2:196)

 
Indeed, one should look deeply into this… why did Allah the Almighty ordain that anyone who commits any of these three offenses should set a believing slave free from slavery and in case one cannot find such means of atonement or expiation, one should set himself free from the slavery of life’s requirements, body’s needs, and soul’s lusts. Fasting is thus the worship of the free; it is a way of disciplining and educating the free!

Were Muslims keen on realizing – through fasting – the meanings of freedom, the reasons of freedom and the keys of freedom, and abstained from associating fasting with hunger and thirst only as is mentioned above, we would see all Muslim lands free from any form of injustice and aggression as a true Muslim soul is entitled to have a strength that is mightier than the strength of any aggression or injustice for it fears none but Allah and none has any power over it but Allah, the Creator of the whole universe.

Finally, the day Muslims will realize the real essence of fasting and regard it as a school for emancipating and freeing their souls from all blemishes and defects, only then we will be in the right path towards gaining Allah’s victory over all enemies and foes and being real and worthy sucessors upon the earth!