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shares a common experience and tries to cleanse and purify itself ready for Paradise. It reminds Muslims of what is really important to strive for in life.

Fasting has physical benefits too. Resting the digestive tract is a good thing if you have diseases such as colonic inflammation, IBS, indigestion and other stomach disorders and reducing the amount you eat for a period of time can be beneficial if you suffer from liver disease. This is also a proven positive effect on hypertension. Of course if Islamic fasting were to involve not eating at all for along period of time then that would be very deleterious to health, but of course it is not a 24 fast, rather a fast during daylight hours. This is of course harder in the Northern Hemisphere than it is in the Middle East, as the days do not vary much in length there 0 a Scottish or Norwegian Muslim may have a real challenge on his or her hands as it can stay light until past 10pm at some times of the year! It is normal practice to break the fast with a meal starting with dates, fruit and other easily digestible things after the sun has gone down. This Sahar is usually a communal affair, and most Muslims will not eat to excess - apart from the fact that that would slightly detract from the point of the Ramadan fast, it is not physically comfortable to go from abstinence to excess!

As the fast is intended to have spiritual benefits, it will naturally have a psychological benefit too. Extra prayers and extra time spent during Ramadan focusing on Allah and his mercies will probably have a calming effect, and the presence of God in one's life should always leave one feeling tranquil and emotionally at peace, but there is additionally some evidence that the way a person's blood sugar level pans out during a fast actually reduces the likelihood of aggression.

There can be physical benefits to fasting, but these are insignificant compared to the spiritual aims. Many claim daylight fasting lowers cholesterol, blood pressure and lipid concentration and is therefore effective against obesity and hypertension. For others though the physical challenge of fasting is an important route to the spiritual benefits the whole point is to subjugate the body's desires to the more important needs of the soul, and it would defeat the object if one fasted in order to achieve physical improvement. Fasting is done to please Allah, to be obedient to his will and to follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.). Achieving that goal is the greatest benefit of all.

Learn more about this author, Anne Davey.
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