Fasting helps Muslims appreciate suffering of the poor – Imam details significance of ritual

On the 10^th and 11^th April, 2024, Muslims around the world climaxed this year’s Ramadan fasting with the Eid-ul Fitr celebration.

The Ramadan fasting is one of the 5 pillars of Islam required of every Muslim and it is observed annually in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

During the 29 or 30 days of fasting from dawn and to dusk, Muslims perform various religious rituals and prayers in a bid to cleanse themselves of sins and draw closer to Allah.

But the significance of this pillar of Islam goes beyond spirituality.

According to the District Chief Imam for Bongo Muhammad-Bashiru Salifu, the 30 days of fasting helps strengthen familial ties and ensure empathy for others.

He explained that staying away from food and water during the period of fasting enables Muslims appreciate the struggles and sufferings of the less privileged in society and the need to lend such people a helping hand.

“When you are well-to-do and you are able to feed 3 times a day or a twice a day, sometimes when these less fortunate ones come to you and they begin to beg, you don’t know the kind of agony they are going through. But when you also go through this hunger within a specific period of time, you’ll realize that ‘these people who are not able to feed, they go through a lot of pain’. So when they come to you, you will remember that you also went through this for 29 or 30 days,” he stated on Breakfast Today on April 11, 2024.

Aside from this, he said the ritual also strengthen the bond among family and community members as they are required to forgive each other and share meals when fasting and breaking same.

“It also enables you to extend a helping hand to others, strengthen the family ties, that’s when you are supposed to visit relatives, to give those your relatives who are not able to fend for themselves either through giving sugar, milo, tin of milk to help them go through the period”.

He emphasized the significance of alms giving in Islam particularly in the month of Ramadan, stating that such kind gestures are blessings that await the giver in paradise.