Fasting Can be Replenishing for Non-Muslims

[Jenn! 918]

Here's an old article I came across that I found interesting:

Fasting can be replenishing for non-Muslims By Jasti Simmons | Assistant Copy Editor

For Muslims, the act of fasting goes beyond the scope of giving up meals for 30 days from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan in October.

Fasting instills in Muslims self-discipline, appreciation and compassion for the less fortunate.

“One of the reasons we fast is to get a feel for how poor people around the world are feeling and we can get a feeling of what they’re going through,” said Maria Rathur, a senior who is a psychology and pre-law double major.

Rathur is vice president of the Wayne State University chapter of the Muslim Students Association and has been a member of the organization since her freshman year. She is one of the people responsible for putting together the Ramadan Fast-A-Thon, a national MSA event that will take place on Oct. 10 at 6:45 p.m. in the ballroom of the Student Center Building. The one-day fast is to help raise money for the Katrina relief effort.

“We’ve done it [the Fast-A-Thon] for three years,” said Rathur. “We always picked a charity. This time it’s the Katrina relief effort.”

Non-Muslims are especially encouraged to participate in the event because MSA members said that fasting goes beyond religious conventions. It has good qualities that many non-Muslims don’t often consider.

“It’s a good way to purify yourself through prayer, pick up slack and replenish your body,” said Radia Denaph, a senior in the occupational therapy program who’s a member of the MSA. “You can reflect on yourself and whether you’re doing this for yourself or God.”

“It gives us a chance to rebuild ourselves,” said Rathur.

Though non-Muslims may wonder how not eating from sunrise to sunset can possibly be beneficial to one’s health — spiritually, emotionally and physically — fasting really does help to cleanse the body and give it a break.

IslamiCity.com offers a plethora of information about the Muslim religion and lifestyle. According to the Web site’s Imam, a leader of congregational prayers, there is information documented scientifically about how fasting cleanses the body of impurities and toxins that come from substances like fast foods, saturated fats, smoking and hard liquor.

For Muslims, fasting also cleanses them of sin.

“Fasting is not just about the food and water,” said Rathur. “It’s about getting rid of the habits like swearing, things you shouldn’t do. It [also] involves character and the way we act and speak for 30 days.”

“They [Muslims] reflect on what they’re doing, not just the eating aspect,” said Denaph. “We use this month to find ourselves.”

The thought of fasting can be unappealing to a lot of non-Muslims because it could be viewed as a mild form of self-starvation or dehydration. However, Muslims still eat two to three meals daily during Ramadan. They just follow a certain format to do it.

“We wake up early in the morning, before the sun rises, and you have to eat a meal,” said Rathur. “Then, you’re not allowed to eat or drink anything during sunrise and sunset [approximately from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.]. After sunset, we try to open our fast.”

“Fasting is for our own good as well as our health,” said Hassan Chaudry, a senior majoring in accounting. He’s been president of MSA’s Wayne State chapter for four months and a member for three years. “Fasting gives [the body] a break.”

Chaudry encourages non-Muslims to try fasting, whether they attend the event or not, just to discover if this can work for them.

“We really encourage non-Muslims to try fasting for a day,” he said.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s not a religious obligation [for non-Muslims].”

Rathur said that she wants non-Muslims to see that fasting and Ramadan aren’t as negative as she thinks the media make them out to be.

“The reason why we’re doing the event is that we wanted non-Muslims to see how it felt,” she said. “It’s portrayed so negatively in the media.”

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[Jenn! 918]

More on fasting:

Fasting During Ramadan Is Beneficial If Done Properly, Says Doctor

P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 5 September 2007 — Fasting during Ramadan is beneficial to one’s health if done properly and in conformity with the dietary instructions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), according to an Indian specialist in natural medicine.

With the start of the Ramadan season just days away, Dr. P.A. Kareem, director and chief physician at the Hygiene Naturopathy Hospital in the south Indian city of Calicut, explained that fasting “is a powerful therapeutic process that can help people recover from mild to severe health conditions, including high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, chronic headaches, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, uterine fibroids, benign tumors, and lupus erythematosus, a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorder.

“Fasting provides a period of concentrated physiological rest during which the body can trigger its self-healing mechanisms to repairing and strengthening damaged organs,” said Kareem.

“The process of fasting also allows the body to cleanse cells from accumulated toxins and waste products,” he added.

He noted that Islam introduced the monthlong mandatory fasting to help Muslims improve their spiritual and physical health.

“Unfortunately, many Muslims consider Ramadan as a food festival, lavishly eating a variety of delicious but unhealthy dishes, forgetting its real message. As a result they don’t get the health benefits of fasting,” said Kareem, who is visiting the Kingdom on Umrah.

“Our body has self-healing power. In order to activate this power, the stomach must be kept empty. This is a rule of nature. We see children and animals refusing to take food when they get sick. Annual fasting if done properly helps a Muslim recover from most diseases,” he said.

Kareem advised fasting Muslims to eat cooked food only once during the night and take a lot of fruit and vegetables for iftar and sahur to accelerate the healing process.

“The Prophet used to eat dates for sahur and water and dates for breakfast,” he pointed out.

During the time of the prophet, Kareem said, there were few sick people in Madinah as they adhered to his dietary instructions and ate moderately. Kareem added that his naturopathic treatment is based on prophetic medicine and teachings.

“Modern scientists and doctors in America and Europe have found naturopathy highly effective in treating many diseases,” Kareem said.

“Cure without medicine is the new ideology. This has led to the creation of several naturopathic hospitals in India and elsewhere in the world,” he said.

He blamed unhygienic lifestyles for the spread of many diseases among expatriate workers in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries.

“They are exposed to ACs and fans, eat refrigerated food and suffer from tension as most of them live away from their families,” he said. Kareem explained that ACs and fans reduce resistance power. Sweating is essential to cure diseases such as diabetes,” he said.

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[AInfante-Saraireh 0]

I agree. All religions have some sort of fast. But even if you're just spiritual, with no connection to religion, fasting is a very healthy thing to do. It's also very hard.