Ramzan is the month which not just gives the believer the spiritual empowerment, but also purifies the body and mind. The fasting during the holy month teaches us to control our urges for materialistic pleasures and keeps us away from wrongdoings.
In fact, fasting is not just a ritual for the believers of Islam, but a very good method for the entire mankind to lead a good and healthy life. All of us, regardless of caste, creed and religion will be benefited from fasting. The stress causes a system perform badly. The fasting helps our body to get purified and prepare it to work again efficiently.
Ramzan encourages us to do good things, speak good things and to follow good things. However, the real achievement of fasting is when we carry on the good things we were doing during the holy month to our life forever. If we followed rules of fasting perfectly during the holy month and on the very next day forgetting everything and were back to square one, that doesn't fulfil the purpose of fasting.
Many a time, due to frequent travelling and health conditions, I was forced to break the fast. The embarrassment of breaking the fast cannot be explained in words. However whenever observing fast, I feel like I am doing a good thing. When I fast I also fondly remember my mother, who actually taught me its significance.
(Dr M. Abdul Salam is the Calicut University vice-chancellor / As told to Harigovind)
