Day 28 Ramadhan - Step 31

Day 28 Ramadhan - Step 30 - Sufi Secrets & Gems of Ramadhan by ~Sajad Ali~

"Fast to be healthy," said the Prophet (peace be upon him)

Holy Hadith of Prophet ﷺ: Fast to be Healthy

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Haqqani Aug 03, 2011

The  benefits of fasting is it allows the body to heal itself in a manner that effects the whole organism, or holistically. It is a re-balancing that occurs on all levels of our being and allows the innate intelligence of the body to foster healing in its own appropriate way. Fasting is  Healing Therapy for the body. Galen, Hippocrates, Paracelsus and many other great authorities on medicine prescribed fasting to cure ills. 

Fasting is recommended as one of the most effective ways to eliminate serious diseases: one of the most common cause of all diseases is the accumulation of waste and poisonous matter in the body which can result from overeating and eating toxic processed foods. 

Physicians today acknowledge the many benefits of fasting that ensure health and the soundness of one's body and mind. Some of these positive points have a direct influence on psychology and physique of the fasting individual. Including those of the digestive systems, such as chronic stomachache, inflammation of the colon, liver diseases, indigestion, and conditions such as obesity, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, asthma, diphtheria and many other maladies.

Islam announces fasting not as a negative act of humble contrition or penance, but as a practice possessing scientific significance serving to improve the welfare of body and spirit. Also fasting helps learn self-restraint from moral indecency by controlling two aspects of the human body, which are the root causes of human downfall, namely the stomach and the private parts.

A great deal of ailments originate from stomach indigestion. This is why the Messenger of Allah ﷺ says: "The son of Adam will never fill a container with something worse and evil than his stomach. It will suffice him some morsels (food) that will keep him on his feet, otherwise, he should divide his stomach into three parts: one third for his food, the other for his drink and the other third for his breath." (Ibn Hibban)

The saying indicates that the stomach is the origin of harmful bacteria. Stomach and intestines are first to be affected by fasting. They receive a complete rest. If they have been over worked, the rest they receive during the fast strengthens them. Ulcers and inflammation are frequently healed. A distended or prolapsed stomach shrinks to its normal size and resumes its original position. Morbid sensibilities and appetites are overcome.

The stomach is a muscle, and this muscle requires rest like any other muscle in the body. The only way in which the stomach can get rest is to deprive it of food, and when this is done, it at once begins to repair any injury done to it and to recuperate from the excessive work which had previously been thrown upon it.

As soon as the stomach empties, a general re-constructive process begins. Broken down cells are replaced by healthy ones, being nature's method of repairing the diseased or injured part of the organism. "This replacement of tissues means that in time a NEW STOMACH is created - a new stomach in every sense of the word - and this stomach is enabled to digest food for long periods of time unless it too is abused."

The spleen, liver and kidneys derive striking benefits from the fast, though they may have added work thrown upon them during the early days of a fast. An enlarged spleen rapidly reduces in size. Abscesses of the liver and Kidney infections have been completely cured. These results are not surprising when we appreciate the fact that the toxic encumbrance of the liver lessens, it also reduces irritation to the kidneys.

The lungs are the direct purifiers of the blood they are among the first organs too feel the beneficial effects of fasting. Any congestion of the lungs, is rapidly removed during the early days so that a free and unobstructed passage of air is readily provided and the feeling of clearness and the ability to talk and sing, together with a clearer range and depth of tone are sometimes observed in patients who are fasting.

It has been recently discovered that fasting renews the youth of all the cells of the bodily functions that distinguish youth from old age. Fasting enhances all of man’s mental powers. Memory is strengthened and by association, powers of reasoning are improved. And often restores the sense of taste, sometimes entirely lacking or dulled. Inflammation of the bones and the teeth are greatly benefited by fasting.

Fasting is the greatest blood purifier. By the fast, the body burns the most useless and toxic materials contained in the blood stream and body. These non-assimilated food materials and wastes block and choke the small blood vessels and congest the lymph vessels.

Therefore, when you are fasting during the month of Ramadhan or otherwise, you must remember these processes are taking place within the body during the fast giving a rejuvenating and revitalising effect.

More benefits of  Fasting

Being deprived of needed nutrients, like fats and protein during a long fast, the body, by the process of self-digestion feeds upon its own reserves and burns and digests its own tissues. The secret of the effectiveness of fasting as a curative and rejuvenation method is that during a long fast the body will first decompose and burn those cells and tissues that are diseased, damaged or dead. 

The essential tissues and vital organs, the glands, the nervous system and the brain are not damaged or digested in fasting.  Whilst fasting, the building of new and healthy cells are accelerated by the amino acids released from the diseased cells. 

The capacity of the elimination organs, kidneys, liver, lungs and the skin is greatly increased as they are relieved of the usual work of digesting food and eliminating the wastes and quickly expel old accumulated wastes and toxins. Fasting offers a rest to the whole system and as a result, the digestion of food and the absorption of nutrients is greatly improved after fasting.

The stopping of both food and water creates a special kind of stress in the body, prompting it urgently to come up with both nutrients and water, initiating the process of making both internally. During fasting, the body survives on so-called endogenous or metabolic water, produced internally as a result of metabolizing fat tissue. Unlike any exogenous water, this metabolic water is of superb quality, produced by the hard work of our own cells. It literally erases any negative information imprint which the body had before the fast, allowing cells to experience a kind of a rebirth, as a result.

Under fasting conditions, even the skin changes its function, from being an organ of elimination to serving as an organ of absorption, taking in any available water from the air and supplying it to healthy cells. Besides water, the body during fasting absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen to manufacture its own amino acids. Since there is no water to flush out the endogenous toxins, these are eliminated by means of a unique mechanism, dormant during less rigorous modes of fasting: Each cell, in effect, becomes the furnace that burns up its own waste.

Inflammation cannot exist without water. Microorganisms need water to survive. These facts taken together make fasting a highly effective tool to address acute health issues and degenerative conditions. Such a fast stimulates the immune system, activates the body’s anti-inflammatory mechanisms, purifies the blood and clears the blood vessels, as well as cleanses the GI tract and renews its mucosal lining.

Fasting also eliminates parasites and promotes regeneration of healthy tissues. And this isn’t even a complete list of benefits. Every cell of the body literally cleans house. Only the strongest and healthiest of cells survive in such extreme conditions, while cysts and benign tumors dissolve as a result of autolysis, a process by which the body sacrifices its sickest cells for its own survival.