On Oct. 27th, Muslims around the World started giving up food from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan. Although many take up this fast for religious reasons, along with it comes many physical, mental and social benefits.
To prepare for Ramadan, Muslims in the Scarborough area flocked to the Centennial College Residence on October 19th, to listen to Sheik Ahmad Kutty, a Muslim scholar. He informed them on how to prepare for this month of fasting.
“The month of Ramadan is the month in which the Quaranic revelation began,” Kutty said. “The Qur’an was revealed during this month, as a source of guidance with the clear criteria of distinguishing truth from untruth.”
Professor Todd Lawson who teaches the Islamic religion and mystical Quranic exegesis at U of T and McGill, said that one of the pillars of Islam urges Muslims to fast during the month of Ramadan. Their Prophet, Mohammed, cleansed himself for 30 days by fasting before Allah (God) gave him the first verse of the Qur’an.
“Fasting is ordered by God in the Qur’an and it is given as an example of proper pious behavior,” Lawson said. “It is also the Sunna (“living example”) of the Prophet Muhammad.”
Kutty encourages Muslims to fast during this time to commemorate Mohammed receiving the Qur’an from Allah, and to cleanse their bodies of bad thoughts, and diseases, as well as encourage generosity, empathy and self-restraint.
Kutty said that many benefits come with fasting, especially to benefit one’s health.
“When you reduce your consumption of food, you can also get rid of many causes and complications of diseases,” he said.
Dr. Greg Wells, a sports physiologist and PhD. student in exercise and respiratory physiology at U of T, confirms this belief that fasting makes your body healthier.
“It gives your digestive tract a break,” he said. “Your digestive system is constantly working all the time.” He continued that: “There is quite a bit of left over waste products in your system that basically stay there forever. When you fast, it gives your body a chance to loosen those up and clean the walls of the system and eliminate some of the stuff that might not get a chance to be eliminated.”
Along with resting your digestive tract and cleansing your system of waste, Wells also recommends fasting in order to get rid of bacterial diseases.
“If you have any sort of digestive issues at all, a fast will certainly help your body fight that off,” he said. “You might have bacteria in your digestive system and bacteria uses food the same way that we do. So if you starve, the bacteria in your system die and it will help your body clean itself out.”
Kutty also said that giving up food for a given period of time requires a great amount of self-restraint and encourages Muslims to be better people by controlling one’s urges.
For Kutty, Ramadan gives Muslims the perfect opportunity to break free of all negative habits that hold humans back from achieving true happiness and perfection
At U of T, Lawson teaches that along with this self-discipline, the holy month of Ramadan also tries to instill in Muslims empathy for the poor.
“It can be seen as a moral and ethical exercise or gesture in the context of the vast discrepancy between poor and wealthy in the world,” Lawson said, “for all members of the human family to voluntarily miss some meals once a year, to experience what it is actually like to be hungry.”
Dr. Walid Saleh, who teaches Islamic thought, literature, and language at U of T, emphasized that this hunger of both the rich and poor Muslims only takes part during the daytime. At nightfall during Ramadan, many Muslim communities block off roads, so that Muslims can join together to break their fast and share their food as a community, and also feed the poor. Both Kutty and Saleh mentioned that the best Muslim dishes are served at these nightly events.
“Imagine Thanksgiving every day for 30 days,” Saleh says. He also said that Ramadan encourages families and friends to spend more time together. “Imagine that people stay up all night, visiting, taking walks, playing games, and doing things one doesn’t usually do, spending time with family and friends because this is what you do in Ramadan. “
Saleh also mentioned that many religions throughout the World, practice fasting at different times of the year. The Christians fast during Lent, the Jews during Yom Kippur and many Hindu groups at different times.
“Moderation, the desire to stop eating, must have been one of the reasons why religions advocate fasting,” Saleh said.
