Page 34 - The Vision of Islam

The Four Pillars

The outer sign of fasting is abstention from food from morning till
evening. But, in its real essence, it is to withdraw from all worldly
attachments, and reduce all mundane necessities to a minimum.
While fasting, one devotes much less time to conversation, social
activity and other such worldly activities. This reaches a climax
during Itikaf, a total retreat conducted during the last ten days
of Ramadan. In Itikaf one is totally cut off from these pursuits.
One retires from the human world and enters the world of God.
The contact which the believer thus establishes with God should
remain with him throughout his life. This is what the Prophet
termed Zuhd (detachment from the world) and has been made
obligatory in the form of fasting during the month of Ramadan.
This renunciation, or Itikaf during the last days of the month of
fasting is considered an extremely desirable form of worship. In
Itikaf, one distances oneself completely from the world and turns to
God. Itikaf is the most complete fulfilment of Islam’s requirements
during the month of Ramadan, but, it is required to be practiced
less strictly as concession, during the first part of the month.
What are the benefits sought in fasting? Its aim is to weaken
the material aspect of man and strengthen the spirituality in him,
so that he may enter the higher realms of faith.
Two things make up a man: his body and his soul. While the
material part of man, the body, is indispensable for the performance
of mundane tasks, it is his soul which will take him to the higher
realities. The soul or the mind—as psychologists prefer to call it—
must, therefore, be preserved in its pristine state. That means that
just as the body requires physical nourishment, the soul must be
nourished spiritually.
When one lifts oneself up from the material world and becomes
attached to the spiritual world, one is astonished to apprehend a
new door of truth opening before one. All those realities that were
formerly invisible beneath a veil of matter now become plain for
one to see. One reaches the loftiest station—the final stage in the
ascent of man.
This is explained in a tradition of the Prophet:
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