03Fasting and Spiritual Detachment

After finding tranquillity in prayer and deepening my relationship with the Qur’an, I felt my spiritual journey was still at its start and that a deeper dimension awaited me.

As Ramadan approached I realised fasting is not only abstaining from food and drink, but a way to purify the soul, step back from the desires of the self and focus on spiritual values.

﴿ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ ﴾

“O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain taqwa.” (2:183)

On the morning of the first day of Ramadan I woke with a new intention that went beyond holding back from eating and drinking.

I decided to live every moment of the month with awareness and spirituality, to make my fast a real detachment from desires, a chance to review my life and goals and direct my energy towards Allah.

In the first days I felt the usual difficulty: hunger, thirst and fatigue. But day by day I began to feel something new; the body weakened while the soul grew stronger. With every hour of fasting my awareness of myself and my relationship with Allah increased.

One night, after Taraweeh, I sat alone with my thoughts and felt a peace I had not known in a long time.

Fasting taught me that the body’s needs are not everything and that the soul needs nourishment too, so I looked at what I had rather than what I lacked: faith, endurance and patience.

As the days went on, fasting became an inner journey of self-discovery. Every day was a lesson in patience, not only over hunger and thirst but over the desires and temptations of daily life.

I realised that this temporary abstinence trains self-control that helps me master my other desires, and teaches discipline in the face of challenges.

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Restraint · from desire · 1 · Patience and · discipline · 2 · Spiritual · clarity · 3 · Taqwa · 4 · Figure 11

In the last ten nights I felt a new spiritual strength, for they hold a great opportunity to draw near to Allah and seek forgiveness and mercy.

I went into i‘tikaf, spending the nights in prayer and supplication away from the noise of life, asking Allah to forgive my sins and strengthen me to continue after Ramadan.

On a night I hoped was Laylat al-Qadr, I sat in the stillness and raised my hands in deep, sincere prayer.

It was a moment of complete clarity, and I felt that everything in the month had prepared me for it: a moment of surrender to Allah, when nothing mattered but nearness to Him and the tranquillity He gives.

In those nights I realised fasting is not a seasonal act of worship alone but a way of life. Patience, self-control and endurance are lessons I can carry into the rest of the year.

By the end of Ramadan I was not the same person who had begun the fast; there was a deep change inside me, and the month had been a gift from Allah and a chance to rebuild myself from within and renew my relationship with Him.