Fasting is a gateway to be God-fearing, having refined manners, and treating people patiently. As ordained by God, fasting from dawn to sunset need not take us into a state of extreme hunger which causes pangs in the stomach, tension and irritability. When the stomach has been empty for a few hours of having a meal, it shrinks and the person begins to feel very hungry. Such a feeling is even stronger in the case of healthy youths, because their stomach is highly active. Moreover, a drop in blood sugar rapidly aggravates such feelings. If one remains without food for a long time after having reached this stage, then one experiences painful pangs of hunger, which start after 12-24 hours of one’s last meal. Needless to say, this differs from one person to another. However, should the case be one of starvation, and the starving person continues without food, his pangs of hunger increase in severity, reaching their highest point after 3-4 days, before gradually reducing in intensity. Then the feeling of hunger disappears, even if the starvation continues.
Hunger is the feeling that prompts a creature to eat. Scientists have discovered a very small center in the brain which, when stimulated, causes a feeling of hunger and makes a creature eat. Should this center become dysfunctional due to illness or surgery, the patient loses all desire for eating and dies of starvation, even though the food available to him is plentiful.
To spare us suffering pangs of hunger when we fast, the Prophet has warned against delaying our meal at the end of the day of fasting. He is quoted as saying: “My followers will continue to do well as long as they take their fast-breaking meal early.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim). He also urges his companions not to neglect their meal before fasting. He says: “Take your suhoor (i.e. the meal just before the beginning of a fasting day), because it carries blessings.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
Fasting is certainly not about enduring severe hunger and thirst. What is required is to abstain from food and drink, and other prohibitions, from dawn until sunset. Should this fasting period be preceded by a good and delicious meal to make it easier to tolerate, this would not reduce one’s reward in anyway. On the contrary, it brings us more reward, because having it means following the Prophet’s example.
On the other hand, Ramadan is the occasion when night worship is highly encouraged. The Prophet is quoted as saying: “Whoever stand up in worship in the nights of Ramadan, in devotion and dedication, shall have all his past sins forgiven.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
God has made the day so as we may be active and go about doing our work. The night is made for rest and sleep. In fact sleep is one of God’s blessings, because it allows our nervous system to regain its strength. Should a person be deprived of sleep for a few days, his brain begins to malfunction.
Moreover, during sleep a person mends any parts of one’s body that have become worn out. Moreover, growth and development take place during the night. What happens is that the body hormones that replace what is lost through the wear and tear process are more active during the night. On the other hand, during the day there is a greater intake of the hormones that help work and physical and mental activity. Moreover, the physical wear and tear process moves during the day at a higher rate than the process of renovation. God says in the Qur’an: “It is out of His grace that He has made for you the night and the day, so that you might rest therein as well as seek to obtain of God’s bounty. (He has indeed given you all this) so that you might have a cause to be grateful.” (28: 73)
Nevertheless, God praises the God-fearing, describing them as people who sleep little at night. He says: “The God-fearing will find themselves in gardens among springs, enjoying all that their Lord will have granted them, because they did well in their past life. They would lie asleep only for a small part of the night, and would pray for forgiveness at the time before daybreak.” (51: 15-18)
This begs the question: Since God has chosen the night as the time for fuller concentration on one’s worship, does this mean that it is done at the expense of one’s mental health, particularly when we know the great benefit sleep at night ensures for us?
The answer is a categorical “No”. Recent psychological studies show that depriving a person suffering deep depression of sleep for one full night, allowing him to go to sleep only the next evening will significantly reduce his depression and improve his spirits. This is so even in cases where treatment with anti-depressants do not have any significant effect. Further studies followed, and it was discovered that there was no need to deprive the patient of sleep for one whole night. It is sufficient to keep him up as from the second half of the night to ensure the same results of improved psychological state. In the verses we quoted above, God says about the believers: “They would lie asleep only for a small part of the night, and would pray for forgiveness at the time before daybreak.” (51: 17-18)
This means that night worship brings us an immediate reward in the form of an improved mental status, less worry and better mental health.
