Transcript PPT File | Click Here

RAMADAN AND
FASTING
a brief review
Ramadan is the ninth month of the
Islamic calendar.
Islam uses a lunar calendar—that is, each
month begins with the sighting of the new
moon.
The month of Ramadan is a special month
full of God’s blessings and great wonders:
• The gates of heaven opened up one more time
and the friendship between Archangel Gabriel and
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) started in this month.
• The Holy Qur’an was revealed and therefore
Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) prophethood was
established in this month.
• Laylat al-Qadr (The Night of Power), a night
which is more valuable than a thousand months,
is hidden in the month of Ramadan.
Fasting in Ramadan became one of the
five pillars of Islam in the second year of
the Hijrah, the emigration from Makka to
Madina.
The following verse makes fasting
obligatory for believers:
“O you who believe, fasting is prescribed
for you as it was prescribed for those
before you, so that you be Godfearing…” (2: 183)
Believers fast during this
month and do not eat and
drink from dawn to dusk
BENEFITS OF FASTING
Medical and Physical Benefits
Psychological Benefits
Social Benefits
Medical and Physical Benefits
The medical benefits of fasting are as a result
of fasting. Fasting in general has been used in
medicine for medical reasons including:
- weight management;
- for rest of the digestive tract;
- lowering lipids.
Medical and Physical Benefits
- Lower of blood sugar
- Lowering of cholesterol
- Lowering of the systolic blood pressure.
Stress increases the blood glucose by
increasing the catecholamine level and any
tool to lower the stress, like biofeedback or
relaxation, improves diabetic control.
Thus, Islamic fasting during Ramadan has a
potentially beneficial effect with regard to
diabetic control.
Medical and Physical Benefits
Muslims who fast regularly and who have
experienced disturbed wakefulness/sleep
cycles on a daily lunar annual basis, can adapt
themselves much faster to different time
zones during international travel and do not
suffer from the ill effects of jet lag.
Medical and Physical Benefits
During fasting, certain endogenous, narcotic-like
substances known as opioids (or endorphins)
are released into the body.
They have a tranquilizing effect as well as an
elating effect on the mind.
These are also responsible for prevention of
psychosomatic diseases. The opioids have
several effects, including slowing down
metabolism to conserve energy.
Psychological Benefits
Ramadan is a month of self-regulation and
self-training
Fasting during Ramadan has a tranquilizing effect on
the mind, producing inner peace and decrease in
anger and hostility. Fasting Muslims realize that
manifestations of anger may take away the blessings
of fasting or even nullify them.
Personal hostility is at a minimum, and the crime
rate decreases. This psychological improvement
could be related to better stabilization of blood
glucose during fasting as hypoglycemia after eating,
aggravates behavior changes.
Psychological Benefits
Withholding or resisting negative thoughts
and actions is also mentally beneficial.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is reported to
have said: “Fasting is not [abstaining] from
eating and drinking only, but also from vain
speech and foul language. If one of you is
being cursed or annoyed, he should say: 'I
am fasting, I am fasting.’”
Social Benefits
Fasting believers understand
the situation of the poor in
their heart when they feel the
hunger and understand the
condition of people who can
barely find a morsel of food.
This feeling triggers the
desire to help such people.
Fasting helps control the
mundane desires of the carnal
self. It thereby protects the
individual from wrongdoing
and extreme indulgence.
Social Benefits
The monetary worship
or charity that is carried
out during the month of
Ramadan is called Alms
(Islamic charity) of Fitr.
Alms of Fitr must be
delivered to the needy
and poor people during
this month.