In The Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the
Merciful
]
FASTING – THE PANACEA FOR HUMAN EVILS
[Shamim A Siddiqi,
Human
weaknesses are very prominent and well cemented in his nature. They surmount
his physical urges and rotate around his natural instincts. They are numerous
and extremely powerful and always keep the man agitated day and night to
fulfill them by hook or by crook, rightly or wrongly, through honest means or
foul. It demands are so overwhelmingly
dominant that man forgets to think very often about the means to fulfill his
desire whether it is permissible or not. Its urgency very often makes the man
its blind followers. He frequently breaks all the rules and regulations, taboos
and restrictions and rushes towards its fulfillment like hungry loin that
pounces upon its hunt the moment he sees it in the jungle of his hunger,
desires and caprices. Thus, Man becomes slave to his urges - irrespective of
the fact where he is and what he is doing and what position he is holding. This is man, the most accomplished creature on earth but the
most selfish and self-centered equally.
If one
analyses the entire list of man's needs and urges, desires and caprices,
weaknesses and shortcomings of his Physical
life, they can be categorized as follows:
1. His
natural desire to take rest and get a
few hours of sleep within the undisturbed peaceful environment of his
home and hearth to recoup his lost
energies and make him fresh to launch his offensive onward against the
formidable objects of nature around him, covering his civic, social and urban
activities;
2. His
natural desire to have some water and
food to drink and eat in order to recoup his lost energies to continue
his struggle for the survival of his self in the wilderness of nature and in
the midst of different hardship of life that are inevitable, covering the
entire spectrum of his economic and trade activities both at individual and
collective levels;
3. His
natural desire to satisfy his sexual
urge becomes dominant at certain age to continue his generation onward
through the Institution of marriage and the process of procreation as its
rightful course to maintain the purity of his blood, clan and family dynasty,
covering the entire spectrum of social, ethical and moral domain.
4. These
dominant three urges are also known
as the animal instincts of man's physical life
that is controlled and fulfilled by his Freewill
that falls within the per view of his
Moral life where man is free to decide and take actions towards the
fulfillment of his natural desires by exercising his freewill or Free
Choice and for that he/she is Accountable to his Creator and Sustainer as to
whether it is right or wrong?
Thus,
man, no doubt, is free to live, act and behave on earth the way he/she likes
but he is accountable for all of his/her actions and deeds on earth to his/her
Lord and accordingly he/she will be rewarded, if the means are right and
punished, if it is wrong.
This is
the living condition of human being since the time man was placed on earth
as the vicegerent of God and the entire resources of this universe were placed
as Trust [Amanah] in his hands to test how he uses this
trust for the satisfaction of his/her needs and urgencies through his Freewill.
But at the same time man was
commanded by the Creator as how to live, act and behave on earth through His
appointed Messengers in a chain from Adam to Muhammad [pbut], The Guidance came
from the Lord of this cosmos through all these Messengers of God and the
last one came in the form of the Qur'an through Prophet Muhammad (S). It
pinpointedly tells the man how to use these Amanah [Trusts] for the
satisfaction of his urges and how to act, live and behave on earth as a moral
entity.
God's latest
Guidance in the form of the Qur’an and the Trust of this universe in the hands
of man will continue till the last Day of Judgment and whereas the man is
constantly under the vigilance of God, every moment of his life, irrespective
of the fact where he/she is and what he/she is doing as hoe he behaves on earth:
“Wa huwa Maakum Ainuma Kuntum;
Wallahu bema Tamaloona Basir” [And He is with you wheresoever you may be. And
Allah is watching what you are doing – Ref: Verse # 4 of Chapter # 57
Al-Hadeed]
This concept of ever-watching by God
becomes more prominent when one is Fasting from dawn to dusk with no food, no
water, and no sex even with his wife/husband during this period. Through this process for a complete month, a fasting man
and woman exercises this control over his/her urges and he/she brings these
urges under his/her control, keeping them in moderation. The urges that could move him otherwise to explore and
exploit the bounties of His Trust in a reckless manner as we see around us in
every walk of life, through fasting he/she becomes their master and thus are
kept in moderation and under control. Through this controlling exercise continuously for a month,
Fasting habituates the man to resort only to honest means of living, live the
life of moderation and develop the concept of God-consciousness to guide his
life to live only through rightful
means/channels and never to resort to wrongful or illicit means, as he/she is
constantly being watched by his/her Lord. irrespective of the fact
where he/she is.
The modern vices like
greed, lust for power, ill-gotten gains, kickbacks, soliciting illegal favors,
false recommendations and all fraudulent trade practices that have ruined and
are paralyzing the business, trade, banking and commercial institutions of the
country are rarely traceable in a person who is God- conscious and always
mindful that his Lord is watching him wherever he is and whatever he is doing.
It will always be upper most in his conscious mind that he is accountable to
Him for what he /she possesses as His trust and what he is doing to earn his
living. Fasting will help him enormously in getting corruption removed from our
multi-national Corporations and day to day life of American citizens from every
walk of life and that is why Fasting was prescribed in all faiths and religions of
the world and all are maintaining its remnant one form or the other while Islam
is maintaining it in its most perfect form in its totality [Ref: Verse #
183 of Surah Al-Baqarah].
The Commercial, Banking and Industrial Institutions of the country can introduce
this Muslim Form of Fasting to their employees as a compulsory exercise to
create God-consciousness in each of them and getting the economic, social and
political system of the country clean and purified. Muslim
organizations must advocate its adoption as a prelude to introduce to the
Islamic System of life gradually as a boon for this country and help to
eradicate corruption from its body politics and economic system sooner than
never. This will be a practical exercise for the men at the helm of affairs of this
country and the world at large to remove corruption which is eating away the
vitals of their social -economic-political life every where.
If Muslims could give
wide publicity to this most innocent and non-political proposal, it will help
in negating the hate campaign against Islam and Muslims in the post 9/11 era. All the communities will love to live in the state of
communion at least for a month. Political and social activists should start a
campaign to this effect at mass level through Masajid, Churches, Synagogues,
Temples, town hall meetings and Campuses if they are really sincere to fight
corruption at all levels. Fasting is a recognized Institution of all the faiths
of God – a panacea for all of human evils.
Let us hold it fast.
Shamim
Siddiqi
July
24, 2010