The month of Ramadan begins

At the beginning of March 2025, the Muslim month of Ramadan begins. 

The month of Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar calendar. During this month, fasting is prescribed for all Muslims, except for those who, due to age, health, pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc., cannot observe it. 

Fasting is a practice that is found in all the world's religions. In the case of Islam, a Muslim must abstain from eating, smoking and other restrictions from dawn to sunset for a full lunar month. 

In the article that we include we want to make it clear that the object of abstaining from basic human needs is to establish a more consolidated link with our Creator; fasting is useless if one does not intend to overcome one's faults and weaknesses. 

Islamic fasting is one of the ways in which Muslims try to get closer to God. The Holy Quran describes the purpose of fasting: 

‘Fasting is prescribed for you so that you may praise Allah for having guided you and that you may be grateful’ (2:186).

By avoiding the need to prepare and eat food, and having more time for himself, man can pay greater attention to spiritual matters and remember God more often. On the other hand, the experience of hunger and thirst helps man to realise the true value of the divine favours and kindnesses that he normally enjoys, so that his gratitude to God increases. 

Man does not properly value what he possesses and only realises the true value of something when he loses it. Thus, when man abstains from food and drink during fasting and suffers from hunger and thirst, he realises the comfort God has provided for him and decides that he must use such a blessed life in useful and good occupations and not waste it in trivial pursuits. 

Likewise, God declares in the Holy Quran (2:184) that the object of fasting is for man to reach the state of ‘taqwa’. The word ‘taqwa’ is used in the Holy Quran with three meanings: security against pain and suffering, against evil, and the attainment of a high spiritual state. 

Fasting provides all of this. At first glance it seems paradoxical that fasting protects man from suffering since fasting imposes a certain amount of suffering. However, the reality is that fasting in the way it has been regulated by Islam and with the exceptions outlined above in the case of the sick, the elderly, etc., has a beneficial effect on the human organism.

On a social level, fasting teaches lessons to mankind that ensure collective well-being. A first lesson is that the rich man, who does not suffer hunger or deprivation and who, therefore, is not aware of the sufferings of his poorer brothers, through fasting comes to know hunger and the suffering it brings. This favours an active sympathy that can be expressed in measures aimed at reducing the poverty rate and raising the level of collective well-being, since it is obvious that the well-being of a nation is linked to the well-being of each individual. 

Another aspect of fasting is that Islam seeks to discourage laziness and indolence in its followers, as well as an unwillingness to bear hardships or difficulties. It wants people to show a willingness to endure privations and inconveniences in times of need. Fasting accustoms one to suffering hunger and thirst, and to exercising control over passions and desires, so that those who sincerely put this commandment into practice do not fall into indolence or abandonment. 

Fasting protects against evil because it is born of the inclination to material indulgence. When one becomes accustomed to a certain type of behaviour it is difficult to give it up. However, he who is capable of abandoning a habit or way of acting at will does not become its slave. The man who, in order to reach God, abandons all kinds of material pleasures for a whole month and learns to exercise self-control and discipline, can easily overcome the temptations that lead to evil. 

In short, this pillar of Islam seeks to generate gratitude and empathy among humanity, reminding those who practise it that the object of their existence is to be grateful to God for all that he has provided and, secondly, that they must be compassionate towards their fellow human beings.