In order for a person to lead a consistent and balanced life, he must be in harmony with himself and his environment. But unfortunately, we often experience emotional and behavioral fluctuations in daily life and we cannot maintain this harmony. Fasting is the most effective behavioral training and a purification process that will repair this inconsistency between our emotions and behaviors.
Fasting balances our outbursts, addictions, and unbridled enthusiasms, and helps us heal the pathology inflicted on our behavior with our own resources. However, for this, we need to include all our organs, our whole selves, our feelings and thoughts, and open ourselves to innovation and change.
As it is known, in Freud's psychoanalytic theory, personality consists of three components as id, ego and super ego. Freud likens the id to the horse and the ego to the rider of the horse.
If the rider does not direct, the horse cannot protect its borders and cannot calculate the danger at the end of the road. The rider guides the horse and ensures that it passes unharmed from danger. That is, the id, governed by the pleasure principle, wants instant gratification of desires and cannot calculate what the result will be.
The superego, on the contrary to the id, refers to the moral standards and ideals we have acquired from our parents and society. On the one hand, there is the id, which does not know the boundaries, and on the other, the superego, which imposes the rules without any tolerance, and the ego provides the balance in this uninterrupted flow.
The ego evaluates the requests from the id and the superego's evaluations by taking into account the environmental conditions and draws a consistent path. Ego represents the will somewhere and maintains the control of behavior by keeping the boundaries. Fasting ensures that the functioning of these three elements, which actively progress in our internal processes, continues in a harmonious manner.
Fasting is a spiritual development process and a ritual that disciplines people by introducing them to their own resources. Fasting is a duty that removes all economic and social statuses and turns humanity into a spiritual power by gathering humanity under the umbrella of humanity. By this means, Muslims establish the social justice system in their inner world and establish a brotherhood that will encompass the whole world.
Fasting helps us keep our unlimited desires under control. Bread is one step away, we have access to water, but we deprive ourselves of all these until the appointed time and have the opportunity to develop our patience. In situations of powerlessness and deprivation, our conscience becomes stronger and we share all the good things we have.
In the month of Ramadan, we reconsider our outbursts and tame and control our anger with love. Our anger turns into compassion, and we try not to hurt. Fasting matures our personality and enables us to realize the richness of our inner world.
Fasting teaches our feelings the values accepted by our minds and makes us a member of the human family by developing our compassion, which is at the top of the range of values.