Fasting in the month of Ramadan is not some kind of annual custom. It is a living creative process. Fasting is related to the entire human life. The aim of fasting is to make man’s entire life a roza-oriented life.
The actual reality of fasting is to put a curb on desires. This is called in a tradition to renounce one’s desires. Thirst is a desire. Hunger is a desire. Sleep is a desire. Leading life according to one’s own plan is also a desire. In the month of fasting we have to abstain from all these desires in order that man puts a curb on other desires, so that he starts leading a disciplined life by his own decision. All the actions man has to perform in his life, there is a 50:50 ratio in it i.e. we have to stay away from something fifty percent and act on something fifty percent. In the Islamic Shariah, ‘There is no God’ comes before, ‘there is one God’. The same ratio of negative and positive aspect is found in all the religious acts. Looked at in this respect, the aim of fasting for man is to apply a brake on his desires so that he may so stick to the desirable deeds in this world. Symbolically speaking, the position of fasting is akin to applying brakes to the engine in human life. Brakes keep the engine of a vehicle in control so the engine can travel properly. If there is no brake in the engine, the vehicle will not work properly.
The same is the case of fasting in the life of a believer. Man should accord the place of a brake to fasting in his life so that he may travel properly in the path of God. The fasting of that person is real fasting for whom the fasting becomes akin to applying brakes as far as forbidden things in the eyes of God are concerned.