It’s that time of year again. Traffic has increased, the lines to the supermarket have tripled, your grandma has started calling to make sure you’re available for family iftar, yes you’ve guessed it Ramadan is back and with it come a lot of questions and musings.

If you live in the Arab world, this time of year probably comes to you with a mix of dread and excitement. Whether you’re a practicing Muslim, a non-Muslim or a buffet Muslim, you definitely have some feelings about Ramadan.

“Egyptians can’t function without shay and sagayer”

“It’s a time of restructure and reset”

“Hafzin, mesh fahmin”

“It’s the most unproductive month of the year”

I’ve been asking people about their feelings for this upcoming month and I gotta say it’s been a blast hearing all of the different answers. But I won’t give it all away yet. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to approach this post and I haven’t found a better way than head on, so let’s just get on with it “What is the deal with fasting?”, like, “not even water?”.

No, not even water. For those of us who fast Ramadan, fasting means abstaining from all food and drink from sun-up to sundown. If you live with us in the 2020s you’ve probably gone through your own fasting craze, whether religious, intermittent, or water fasting, it feels as if almost everyone is following their own fasting formula these days. So, what’s so special about fasting, and why are many people adopting it as a lifestyle choice?

Depending on what source you’re reading, you’ll likely get an answer that involves the words autophagy, ketosis, and metabolic switching. I’m not super into medical explanations, but I think this one is important to know, so I’ll do my best with it. The process of fasting allows our body to renew its cells as well as access a special state of fat burning (ketosis) that helps with losing weight and maintaining a healthy heart. By not feeding the body, we allow it to focus on some of the more in-depth processes it needs to work properly. To get into the nitty gritty, fasting burns through our store of glucose (sugar), allowing the liver to release its fat stores. This fat is then turned to energy, as the body begins glucogenesis or metabolic switching. Literally burning fat to survive (this is why a lot of people intermittent fast to lose weight). Fasting also triggers a metabolic pathway called autophagy, wherein waste is removed from the cells, allowing the cells to renew. Accessing this level of detox is one of the unconventional but widely successful ways of warding off cancer and neurodegenerative diseases (this is why you see terminally ill patients often going for a water fast as a treatment method to help combat their dis-ease). Many studies have shown that those who routinely fast have a 45% lower rate of mortality than those who do not fast (however there are also a number of studies that preach fasting in moderation, so be careful).

Personally, however, I’m much more curious in the spiritual effects of fasting than in the physical ones. Many disciplines and disciples fast as a way of getting closer to God, and that is amongst other things, the purpose of Ramadan and other fasting traditions. If we consider the human being to consist of three bodies, the physical, the mental emotional, and the spiritual, fasting starves the first two to give more power to the last. نضعف الناسوت لنقوي اللاهوت. We’ve all heard the age-old fasting mobarrer that we fast to feel the pain of the poor, but really the practice of fasting is about much more than that: it’s also about raising our vibrational frequency and supercharging our spirit. When we fast we are (or are meant to) starve the ego in readiness for spiritual guidance. In my opinion, I feel that the discipline required to complete a fast is an example of the same kind of spiritual strength required to follow a belief system. Fasting opens you up beyond your own personal needs and into the realm of shared consciousness. When we eat we are literally weighing our body down— grounding it—, so fasting allows for a more ethereal experience.

So is this why the Prophet fasted Mondays and Thursdays?

I honestly have no clue, but my best guess is yes.

“For a lot of people in this day and age, fasting is a cultural thing,” a friend of mine argued. “People fast because everyone around them is.” Although I don’t want to, I am inclined to agree with her. In Egypt, at least, it often feels that fasting has become kind of a “peer pressurey” act. We no longer really practice the traditional religious aspect of fasting but stay up all night watching mosalsalat and gorge ourselves on waraa 3enab and sweets come fitar time.

Maybe it matters before fasting to outline what you’re fasting from. It’s all in the intention, as they say. الأعمال بالنيات. Just like everything else, in order to do fasting right, it needs to be done purposefully. Many people intermittent fast as a way of regulating their portions. The purpose is in the process, so to speak. The same goes for all other kinds of fasting, you need to lay the ground work— intention-setting— before you embark on the journey. And whatever your belief system at least Ramadan is a structured time to reset your clock. Out of all the comments I’ve gotten on fasting and this month, this is perhaps the most popular one. Most people take this time to re-evaluate their routine and try and implement some healthy habits.

So whether you’re fasting or not fasting this year, I hope this time brings you to a more centered you. I hope you can assert some intentions to be guided on a spiritual level or at the very least reset your routine. I will be here cheering you on.

What are your fasting practices or beliefs about fasting?

How do you use this practice to your benefit (if at all)?

Do you believe that fasting brings us together or tears us apart?

Faithfully yours,

Girl With One Earring

Photo Credit: Akram Reda