Fasting is not a diet

Assaalamu alaikum dear brothers and sisters in Islam !

Today I want to adress something that bothers me for quite a while now. Asthere is - finally ! elhamdulillah ! - Ramadan coming, the issue of fasting pops up for muslim communities. I am so excited for the three month ! May Allah grant us all a blessed intense month of Ramadan ! A month full of understanding and barakah <3

During the last year I experienced a lifechanging Ramadan. It literally changed me from head to toe. It changed my outlook on life, it gave me inner piety. I dont know how to put it into words, but I guess for the first time in my life my heart was completely filled with the love of Allah . It was completely pure, free from any negativity, from any wordly desire. I was free, seeking only Allahs pleasure. Subhanallah ! Ya Allah grant me and the Ummah one more Ramadan like that ! 

Afterwards I started fasting mondays and thursdays, according to the sunnah of our prophet, to create my own little Ramadan at least twice a week.
It is great to keep you going, to keep you busy, but its not even comparable to Ramadan. Not at all.So I learnt to appreciate Ramadan even more.

Modern muslims dont pay much attention to the three month except for Ramadan. But thats not what I want to talk about today. The issue I want to address is much bigger, a lot more important. It is about pure intentions.


We all know that deeds are judged by intentions, that it is the heart, the inner dimension of a deed that defines its worth.So we want to recheck our intentions over and over again.We want to ensure, that our deeds are for ALLAH and ALLAH only.

And we want to get rid of anything else.We do the deeds,because ALLAH wants us to do them, and as we love HIM our only struggle is to please HIM.So we do it in order to please HIM and not to benefit from it on a worldly basis.There is a lot to talk in this field of pure intentions, but as Ramadan is just around the corner I want to talk about one thing, that corrupts a lot of peoples intentions during Ramadan.


We fast.During this time we dont eat, dont drink, have sexual intercourse, fight,curse anyone etc. . We stay away from haram and even from some halals .

As we stay away from food and drink we lose weight.Naturally.Most people are extremely happy about that.No problem at this point, right ? Wait, its coming .

As we know that we can expect weightloss we look forward to Ramadan to slim down.Why do we want to slim down ? To appear prettier, to appeal to PEOPLE.So this becomes one of our motives for fasting and we automatically -without awareness- put PEOPLE in our hearts.We corrupt our intentions
.What was once for the sake of ALLAH only , becomes now a splitted thing.It is for ALLAH yes, but also for people ,
 or ourselves, our husbands, wifes or whatever.It doesnt matter at this point really. What matters is, that there is something or someone else you do it for.


1) Ban your scale
For the time of Ramadan just dont use it, or better put it in some shelf.Dont control your weight.Just dont.

2)Big Mirrors
Dont try to replace your scale with your Mirrors.If there are big Mirrors in your room, put some fabric over it  and make a habit of not staying in front of mirrors too long.Not longer than 40sec, to check your clothing.

3)Shopping
Dont go shopping for clothing during Ramadan.Firstly there is a lot of things you could spend your time instead of shopping and secondly shopping for clothing will make you judge your body.Our prophet said

"Many people dont get anything from fasting except hunger and thirst,and many people who pray at night get nothing from it except weakfulness." (Al-Bukhari). Leave the unneccessary out.

Ramadan is a month full of Barakah, you really cant efford wasting this time.

4)Lose clothing
In fact, this should be selfunderstanding, but unfortunately its not.I started wearing only Abayas since 3 month, and im more comfortable than ever before.

" O children of Adam! We have indeed sent down to you clothing to cover your shame, and (clothing) for beauty and clothing that guards (against evil), that is the best. This is of the communications of Allah that they may be mindful." (7/26)

May Allah grant us all the most intense and heartchanging Ramadan <3

May peace be upon you <3 

why is fasting never an option?

"Three...two...one...everybody on the dates ! Azan is calling ! Azan is calling! "

Oh lovely Ramadan!Why are you gone so fast every time? I love you ! I love you so much from the depth of my heart! The spiritual atmosphere in Ramadan is very special.So deep and  authentic.Life is so much more worthless in comparison to akhirah in my eyes during Ramadan. In Ramadan I can do EVERYTHING I want. During Ramadan I feel great and I get rid of bad habits.


So why is fasting never really an option for us in daily life? I mean, we are making dua all day every day, we pray 5 times a day (during Ramadan I did even 6 times a day . Tahajjud is sooo great , but I´m going to write a different post about that later). And all that is good and completely fine...but why do we never think of fasting during normal days? WHY ? It´s like a mega-event if we do it (or Ramadan obviously :D). Well, let me tell you a story...As I always do  : D

During Ramadan (by far the most intense one of my entire life, guess I´m just starting to mature and be aware of everything more finally) I felt so good.I felt not only connected , but even like BEST FRIENDS with a ton of respect and a little bit fear towards ALLAH (c.c.). His love fulfilled me and I felt completely detached from the world.I felt like the only thing I needed was ALLAH. And I felt like he was honestly the one and only that I really wanted. And I wanted him desperately.
My life seemed to be so perfect.Everything improved from the first day.The world was so nice to me, because I was nice to the world.Success seemed to be increased in every aspect of my little life. I felt no hate. I didn't feel any bad feelings at all. I felt just love.Pure love.Pure, crystal clear and innocent. People told me , that I would glow and spread so much love even without saying something.
Not only mental and spiritual it was a month of success, but also health wise. My health was like up to 3000% . OK , I´m guilty I admit I didnt exercise ( I still don't, but definitely should) but I lost a good amount of weight. I ate zero junk, but replaced it with delicious fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts.I ate less, but had like double or three times the energy.

My productivitylevel was up the sky. 

   

When I look back, what I have done everything I still don't know HOW I managed it, but everything was so easy...
I read so much.And let me tell you something.I´m a little bookworm, since I can remember myself.I loved to read thrillers and novels and trivial stuff like that, which is not really hard to read right?But the moment you start reading Islamic or even scientific books the whole issue becomes a little bit different right? Well, not for me anymore ! I didn't only quited reading trivial literature and replaced it with Islamic or scientific books, but also increased the amount I read + I started taking notes and using a highlighter i n my books! And people it works WONDERS ! So highlight in your books and take notes ! 



So I thought . What was the source of my energy and well being in this month ? And I came to the conclusion that it was two things:
1) Fasting (and that means also awareness of god and transience) 
2) The ability to do what I really WANT, because there is no shaytan I had to fight 

So since I don't have any influence on aspect Number 2 I decided to focus on number one.Fasting.
I decided that I wanted to have the same energy in my life for the whole year so I would fast.
And I did. I did Shevval and then a couple days more as  just good deeds.And it worked perfectly! With fasting I realised how much time and effort I actually spent on preparing and eating junk stuff, that was bad for me in every way just because I was bored. The moment you fast and you know you wont eat till sun goes down, you automatically stop wasting your time thinking about it! It saved me so much time !

But I was scared that it would become normal for me and just like my "eating-habit"  . I didn't want it to be effortless and super easygoing. I still wanted to have at least SOME struggle doing it.I wanted to make an effort,because my intention was to please ALLAH and not developing a new eating-culture. So I looked up  a few hadiths.And I found some , which say that our Prophet (s.a.v.) used to fast Mondays and Thursdays.As   someone said, that he could fast more, he replied that fasting his way is the best. So I did it. And it works perfectly. I recommend fasting to everyone and hope to practise this for hopefully the rest of my life... Insaallah  if Allah is willing .

May peace be upon you <3

Your fasting Ayse