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The Culture of Self-Restraint
society to progress. In the latter case, you are doing this
indirectly.
But people who are neither givers nor ‘no problem’
persons, only become a burden on society. Although
according to the conventional law these people may
not be criminals, this is exactly what they actually are in
terms of the etiquette of human life.
The Culture of Self-Restraint
The great merit in fasting is that it trains men and women to
refrain from following their desires and instead always to bow
to reason. That is the spirit of sawm.
asting, in some form or the other, is part of every
Freligion. In Islam it is called roza. (The Arabic
equivalent of roza is sawm. Sawm literally means
abstinence, that is, to refrain from doing something).
The ninth month of the Hijri calendar, that is, Ramadan,
has been especially chosen for fasting. Fasting during
the month of Ramadan is obligatory for every Muslim,
except when he has a genuine reason not to do so.
In every human being there are two faculties to take
into consideration: one is desire and the other is reason.
In all matters, the individual has to decide whether
to follow his desire or his reason. The great merit in
fasting is that it trains men and women to refrain from
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