During this blessed month of spiritual cleansing, repentance, and steadfastness, consider making a donation towards our efforts in serving The Quran so that every individual, Muslim and non-Muslim, is able to connect with Allah (SWT) during His month. Whether it’s a one-time donation or Sadaqah Jariyah, no investment is small in the view of Allah (SWT) in the month of The Quran.
For many, fasting is often limited to engaging in acts that just withhold a believer from consuming food, water, or engaging in any sort of sinful activity. However, anyone who has fasted, even if just once in life, knows that what fasting really withholds is comfort, and not just physical comfort, but egoic comfort. The comfort of always doing what we want, when we want. Fasting doesn’t just empty our stomachs, it disrupts our illusion of control. What rises in its place isn’t always pretty. By mid-afternoon, our patience starts to wear thin. By sunset, we might accidentally snap at someone for something that we wouldn’t even register on a normal day.
We do not become the worst versions of ourselves in Ramadhan, we’re just becoming more visible to ourselves. Our mask begins to slip. The fast quite literally strips away the layers we are usually hiding ourselves behind. This is what makes Ramadhan such an intimate and honest month. It’s not about starving the body, it’s about starving the part of us that always wants to be first, loudest, and satisfied. The part that says, “I deserve,” “I’m right,” or “I don’t need help.” That part, the ego, doesn’t go down quietly, but fasting helps us hear its voice more clearly and, if we’re paying attention, fasting teaches us how to quiet it.
Seeing the self for what it is
In Surah Yusuf, Prophet Yusuf (as) says something deeply vulnerable, “And I do not seek to free myself from blame, for indeed the soul is ever inclined to evil, except those shown mercy by my Lord. Surely my Lord is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (The Clear Quran®, 12:53)
He’s not blaming the soul. He’s just being honest about what the soul left untrained tends to do, and that is to serve itself.
Islam doesn’t tell us to hate the self. It tells us to refine it. Scholars describe three states of the soul: the commanding soul (nafs al-ammarah), the self-reproaching soul (nafs al-lawwamah), and the tranquil soul (nafs al-mutma’innah). Every one of us sits somewhere along that spectrum, and Ramadhan offers us a way to move. It doesn’t promise us perfection, but it does offer clarity. Fasting turns down the noise long enough for us to hear what we usually ignore.
The ego hates to be invisible
One of the unique things about fasting is that no one can see it. You can pray in public, you can give visibly, but you can fast for 12 hours and no one will know unless you tell them. That’s probably why the Prophet (SAW) said that Allah (SWT) has said, “Fasting is Mine, and I alone reward it.” (Sahih Muslim)
There’s no room for performance here. That’s why fasting is so good at starving your ego. It removes the applause that it craves. It forces you to ask, “Why am I doing this?” If it’s not for people, and it’s not for the feeling of piety, then it has to be for something deeper, for the One who sees in secret.
The ego, however, doesn’t like that. It wants to be recognized. Fasting asks us to be invisible and loved by God in that invisibility.
The Quran breaks the illusion
Ramadhan is called the month of The Quran for a reason. Allah (SWT) says beautifully, “Ramadhan is the month in which the Quran was revealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the decisive authority. So whoever is present this month, let them fast. But whoever is ill or on a journey, then let them fast an equal number of days after Ramadhan. Allah intends ease for you, not hardship, so that you may complete the prescribed period and proclaim the greatness of Allah for guiding you, and perhaps you will be grateful.” (The Clear Quran®, 2:185)
You cannot talk about fasting without talking about The Quran because fasting empties us, and The Quran fills us with spirituality if we open our hearts and minds to it.
However, here’s the thing. You can’t absorb The Quran when the ego is shouting. When your mind is always planning, defending, and reacting, fasting helps still that noise. It humbles us, quiets us, and in that silence, we can finally hear something besides ourselves. That’s why The Quran describes itself as a light. It is not just for the world, but for the internal mess we carry.
What if I don’t change this Ramadhan?
It is okay to acknowledge the fact that fasting doesn’t always change us. The Prophet (SAW) has warned that some get nothing from fasting but hunger and thirst (Ibn Majah). We can fast, pray, read The Quran, and still walk away unchanged. Why? Because the ego found a way to stay in charge. Sometimes we fast and become proud of our self-control. Or we start judging others. Or we stay angry all day and justify it with low blood sugar. That’s not fasting. That’s the ego adapting to the new rules. Real fasting shows up in how we speak to people, how we forgive, how we talk to ourselves, and if it’s not softening us, it’s not working.
The impact that fasting has upon us
The fast ends at maghrib, but the real fast, the one from ego, lasts longer. Or it should. The goal of fasting isn’t hunger. It’s taqwa. That’s the voice inside that pauses before speaking. That asks before acting. That remembers Allah (SWT) when no one else is around.
The tranquil soul doesn’t come from effort alone. It comes from surrender, and fasting is the daily practice of surrendering, of saying, “I want, but I won’t. I could, but I choose not to. For you.”
Fasting doesn’t immediately turn us into saints. It makes us see what needs saving, and ultimately, that is us from the internal whispers that crave for us to have an inflated ego. So this Ramadhan, let your hunger teach you something. Let your thirst pull you inward, and let your restraint be a reminder that you’re not your cravings, your temper, or your pride. You are a pure soul that is learning to become the best version of itself. And perhaps maybe, by the end of it, what you’ll crave most is the quiet that remains when the ego gets out of the way.
Dua
O Allah! Purify our souls from pride and self-deceit. Fill them with consciousness of You and awe of Your presence. Let our fasting be a shield from sin and a light within our hearts.
O Allah! Let our fasting not become a hollow habit, but a sincere act of worship for Your sake alone. Grant us honesty in private as well as in public.
O Allah! Break our ego with our fast. Fill the hunger with reverence for You, the silence with Your remembrance, and the emptiness in our hearts with Your love.
O Allah! Make us among those who, when they hunger, remember their weakness; when they thirst, recall their need for You; and when they fall silent, hear Your call.
O Allah! Let us be among those who fasted for You alone—whom You forgave, whom You were pleased with, and to whom You opened the gate of Rayyan.
Ameen!
