Fasting throughout the month of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam, is definitely one of the important acts of worship (ibadah) in Islam.

The fundamental purpose of fasting is to discipline the desires and passions that are within humankind so that they are properly placed in the scheme of human action.

"It is very wrong to consider fasting as an act of worship to suppress human desire. Something that is within human nature from the Islamic viewpoint should not be considered in a negative perspective," said the Director-General of the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM) Datuk Nik Mustapha Nik Hassan.

The angelic part of humankind should be able to guide the animalistic components so that they remain on the right path and attaining this through fasting can lead to human dynamism in productivity and creativity in all their mundane activities.

"Islam hopes through fasting, humans can rule over their evil desires instead of the other way round. Thus, moral discipline is very important and relevant in today's modern living," he said.

EMPHASIS ON DISCIPLINE

In the absence of moral discipline, all kinds of social ills will surface in a very alarming rate in society.

It is reported in Sahih Bukhari that the Prophet (S.A.W) once said: "God has no need for man to go without food and drink that cannot shun evil and falsehood even during a fast".

Thus, the worship of fasting gives great emphasis on moral discipline.

Indeed fasting can enable an individual to be more pious and productive.

Nik Mustapha explained that the need to continuously discipline human soul should not stop by the end Ramadan though the spiritual uplifting during Ramadan should have a strong influence even after this period.

This is the reason why in Islam the Muslims are encouraged to fast even after Ramadan is over.

It is a great pity if there are individuals who consider fasting as irrelevant with the present modern living because those who are of this opinion fail to understand the need of the human nature and they equally fail to appreciate the required ingredients for humans to succeed in all spheres, including achieving economic affluence.

SUCCESS BEGINS WITH UNDERSTANDING

Nik Mustapha said any formula for success in all aspects has to begin with the understanding of basic human nature and needs.

As agent of change, man is the subject that leads change, progress and to improve and sustain the existing performance.

Islam believes that the human personality is constituted of three components, viz, body, mind and soul which demand proper attention and requirement in order for man to lead a successful life.

Failure to meet the needs of all these components of human nature can have a significant negative effect to an individual's potential and can eventually have a negative implication on the individual's social relations in society.

The human physical body cannot develop properly if an individual fails to take sufficient and appropriate nutrition and similarly with the human mind and soul.

The human mind requires true knowledge and new ideas through continuous learning in order to understand the nature and the changing realities in the present and future.

PERFECTNESS

The human soul on the other hand demands spiritual food on a continual basis. Through Divine Guidance we can only guarantee that human soul can properly be developed, meanwhile human mind on its own has no ability to understand its own soul, Nik Mustapha explained.

The confusion of the present modern society is because we fail to recognize the need of Divine Guidance for our soul.

"All the above human needs are inter-related to one another and each requires others to perfect the entire human needs and cannot be compartmentalised", he said.

Islam believes the genuine foundations of good human life must be based on the perfectness of belief and thinking, purity of soul and righteousness of action.

The act of fasting throughout the month of Ramadan by Muslims is one aspect of worship that can help realize these objectives.

BERNAMA