28. FASTING AND HEALTH

Sometimes we are in a situation where we are compelled to fast. For example, we are on a journey and suddenly stranded in a foreign land and are short of food. Yet, we survive. In winter 1963, two people survived from a plane crash on a mountainside in Northern British Columbia in Canada. For over one month they lived on water only without food. They had been very fat. When they were rescued 49 days after the crash they were found in good condition.
In the animal kingdom, fasting, lack of food, even famine are common. Yet, the animals survive. They rarely die of starvation. The hibernating bear, for example, without taking any food for long periods, will give birth to her cub and secrete milk for her young. It is said that the starfish may grow a new stomach, new tube feet and new arms while fasting. The same with the salamandar. Without taking any food its lost tail will grow a new one. In spite of temporal lack of food life continues in the animal world.
Fasting (الصَّوْم) is one of the fundamentals of Islam. By showing our devotion to Allah in fasting, we get spiritual and physical benefits from it. Physicians throughout his¬tory hhave confirmed the truth of the statement of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) when he said:
صُوْمُوْا تَصِحُّوْا (رواه الطبراني)
"Fast, so that you will be healthy." 120
The Greek historian and traveler Herodotus (484-420 B.C.) described the early Egyptians who fasted three days a month as extremely healthy people. This type of fasting was prescribed in Islam shortly after the Prophet's emigration from Mecca to Madinah. Allah says: "O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint, - (Fasting) for a fixed number of days;..."121 "A fixed number of days" means three days a month.122 This type of fasting was later replaced with the fasting in the month of Ramadan. Allah says: "Ramadan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur’ān, as a guide to mankind, also clear (signs) for guidance and judgment (between right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home) during that month should spend it in fasting,..." 123
The Muslim physician and philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicen¬na, 980-1037 C.E.) was said to have prescribed fasting for all ailments. Fasting has been used in the treatment of patients suffering from metabolic disorders, allergic diseases, skin diseases, asthma, etc., in clinics and sanitariums in Switzerland, France, Russia, India, and Germany since the mid-19th century. Dr. Edward Dewey wrote a cen¬tury ago:
"I contend that during illness feeding
becomes a burden to the sick. It uses energy that
otherwise would be used to fight illness."
The French Noble Prize winner in 1912, Dr. Alexis Carrel (1837-1944 C.E.) described the important phenomena in fasting when he said:
"The sugar of the liver and
the fat of subcutaneous deposits are
mobi¬lized, also the proteins of the muscles
and the glands. All the organs sacrifice their
own substances in order to main¬tain blood,
heart and brain in a normal condition.
Fasting purifies and profoundly
modifies our tissues."
Among the 27 benefits of fasting mentioned by Dr. Allan Cott in his Fasting: the Ultimate Diet are to lose weight, to give the whole system a rest, to clean out the body, to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, to cut down on smoking and drinking, to let the body heal itself, to relief tension, to sleep better, to digest food better, to regulate bowels, to learn better eating habits, and to slow the aging process.
In the animal world animals use nature's way to heal themselves. When they are ill, they find a quiet place where they rest and stop eating. Even domesticated animals such as cats and dogs and even "dumb" cows are smart enough to stop eating when they are ill. By fasting the animal creates within its body a biochemical state which help it to quick recovery. But man acts on the opposite direction of the animal law when he is ill. Man and only man who persists and insists in eating when he is ill, although his body rejects food, when sweets taste bitter, and even when he has no appetite.
An article in the Health magazine stated that if the average person were to fast one day out of every week for the whole year "he would be no older in body at the year's end than in the beginning." In other words, although his chronological age continues, his physical age stops with fasting. This is very good news for us Muslims. If we fast every Monday or every Thursday, or every Monday and Thursday of the week as recommended by our religion, we shall not only get reward from Allah, but also slow the process of our aging.
Prof. C.M. Child of the University of Chicago reveals in his over fifteen years of research on aging in animals that periodic fasting is generally conductive to rejuvenescence. He found that in certain species of insects, insects with abundant food live in three to four weeks. But if the food is greatly reduced or the insects are forced to fast, they may continue to be active and young for at least three years. This statement reminds us of the swarm of locusts that suddenly appeared and multiplied in millions and devastating crops in Africa and Asia, but suddenly disappeared. Why? Being overfed, they killed themselves by eating too much. However, some were not overfed, and therefore, were not completely destroyed, and had chance to survive longer and to breed and to threaten us again in the future. Overeating is dangerous, but fasting could maintain your health. Let us learn from nature. Nature is a book, and to read it nobody is illiterate.
Fasting is not starving. It takes a long fast to come to starvation. Doctors say that man can survive without food for several weeks, but can survive without water for about three days only. However, an exception did occur when a baby was reported to have survived miraculously after being trapped in a collapsed building for one week in Mexico city when this city was being devastated by earthquake in 1985. Abstaining from water in 18 or even 19 hours of fasting in summer for Muslim people living near the northern or the southern pole is only one-fourth on the length of time that can cause death from starvation. Even if they fast without having their suhur (pre-dawn meal) and fast 24 hours, this is still only one-third of the length of time that can cause them die of starvation. Therefore, fasting on the longest day of Ramadan in summer is far from being dangerous to healthy people. Allah Himself says:
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا (البقرة : ٨٦‌۲)
"Allah asketh not a soul beyond its scope..." 124
In order to make fasting easier, the Prophet recommends us to have our pre-dawn meal (suh.ūr). Mālik b. Anas reported the Prophet said: "Have your pre-dawn meal for it is blessing." He also recommends us to break our fasting with dates or water. He said: "Break your fast with dates, for they are a blessing; if you do not have dates, then with water, for it is pure." The late Dr. Anwar al-Muftī gives us his comment on the last h.adīth, saying that sweet liquid is absorbed by the intestines in less than five minutes, eliminating the symptom of sugar deficiency in a short time; sugar in food is absorbed within three or four hours, so that the symptom of sugar deficiency still remains in a person who breaks his fasting with solids rather than sweet liquids as if one is still fasting.
We have one teaspoonful of sugar in our blood. If the amount of sugar in our blood increases, we may have sugar problem, diabetes, namely, the pancreas cannot properly absorb sugar and starchy foods. If the amount is reduced a little, we may feel tired, but if it is reduced to half, we shall lose consciousness. This is the importance of sugar. The fastest way of supplying our blood with sugar is by drinking sweet liquids, and the best sweet liquid for our blood is honey. It is because honey contains 40 % dextrose which is quickly absorbed into our blood, and 34 % levulose which is slowly absorbed into our blood, so that with honey the supply of sugar into our blood lasts longer.
With regard to the benefit of water for breaking the fast, Dr. Allan Cott said: "Water is the faster's best friend. It facilitates the flushing of toxins and waste materials that accumulate when fatty tissues are being 'burned.'"
Wild animals know by instinct how to live, what to eat and drink. But man, the most intelligent being on earth, eats the food that is most difficult to digest and drink unhealthy, "poisonous" drinks. The caffeine in coffee, tea, chocolate, and soft drinks like coca-cola, and the nicotine in tobacco are all "poisons," not the lethal poisons that kill instantly, but the legal ones. They are stimulants that just tickle our body. When our body cries for sleep and rest, instead of giving what it wants, we say: "No, this is no time for sleep and rest." So, we take these stimulants and feel "fresh" again, an artificial freshness. Stimulating our nervous system the caffeine makes us feel more awake and encourages activity and conversation. And we do this every¬day throughout our lives. No wonder if man does not live long enough and reach easily the age of 100 years.
The animal's minimum life span is said to be five times the period required for it to mature. For example, the chicken matures at the age of six months, easily lives to be two and a half years old; the dog matures at the age of one, easily lives to be five; the calf matures at two, easily lives to be twelve; the horse matures at four, easily lives to be twenty. Man matures at the age of twenty, and is supposed to be able to live easily to be one hundred years old, but, alas, at the age of sixty he has already become semi-invalid.
Fasting is the key to health. It purifies every cell in our body. Fourteen centuries ago our beloved Prophet Muham¬mad (p.b.u.h.) had said: "Fast, so that you will be heal¬thy."
May this little information be helpful in strengthening our faith and heightening our spirit in performing the obligatory fasting in this holy month of Ramadan as well as the recommended fasting on other days of the year, amin!!!

Footonotes:

120. Reported by al-T.abrānī
121. Qur’ān, [2]:183-184
122. See Ibn Kathir's Tafsir on these verses.
123. Qur’ān, [2]:185
124. Qur’ān, al-Baqarah [2]:286, M.M. Pickthall's translation