25/02/2026
The fasting person has two occasions for joy
humanity, clear proofs of guidance, and a criterion. So whoever among you witnesses the month, let him fast it." [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 185] As for the second occasion of joy, it is an experience like no other, reminiscent of the joy felt when meeting someone who is most beloved. It is the meeting of the fasting person with his Lord who had helped him to carry out his fast and had blessed him with success in doing so, and who had promised him for his fast the best of rewards that He has kept in store for him. This is an experience of joy by which all the pains and sorrows of life are forever forgotten. It is an overwhelming joy. On that day, the person who had fasted during his worldly life will be entitled to rejoice in it. However, this will be the case only as long as he had restrained his hands from sinful deeds and his tongue from evil words and thereby safeguarded his fasts from becoming bereft of blessings. Those who are barred from the blessings of their fasts are indeed doubly deprived. Their fasts deprived them of their food and drink, and then their conduct deprived them of the blessings and rewards. This is because they had violated the sanctity of the month of Ramadan with the ignominy of their words and the wickedness of their deeds. Therefore, every fasting person needs to be aware of what the fast really means. He needs to fully appreciate its great and noble purposes. He must prepare himself mentally to safeguard his fast from every evil word and deed, so he can be sure to experience both of the joys that are unique to the fast. He should, likewise, let all the goodness that Allah has prepared for those who fast with sincerity be a means for him to restrain his eyes from casting their gaze upon that which is unlawful. If, instead, a person opts not to lower his gaze from the foul images on the television screen and the forbidden sights of the street; if he chooses to indulge his ears in listening to provocative music and indecent songs; if, above all that, he allows his tongue to speak falsely and injuriously, then he should know that the only pleasure he shall experience when he breaks his fast is that felt by the cattle when they are set out to pasture or by the lion when it catches its prey. Of joy, he will have nothing else.
