prayer they wish to obtain the trust of people of this world as well as of the other world.
Another group feel that they are forced to fast, but whenever they find a chance, they eat as much as they can.
Still another group of philosophers are found who say that man should serve other people rather than fast.
Then there is a last group, from whose hands may God protect us, who believe in nothing. Many are to be seen these days.
We really all misuse the fasting month. Those who fast and do not eat anything during the daytime, make up for it at night. They begin eating just after sunset and do not stop chewing until sunrise. The result of this is an upset stomach which sends them to physicians right after Ramadan and keeps them the regular visitors of the cruel doctors all the year.
The law of fasting is not applied to infants, idiots, the sick and the aged. It is considered an act of great merit to spend much time during the nights of Ramadan reading the Koran and the Traditions. It is believed that the Koran was revealed on one of the last ten nights of Ramadan, and for this reason the month is considered very sacred.
If fasting is to be of any real value for either spiritual or physical purposes, it would seem that it would have to be observed in some more rational manner. One cannot deny that there may be value in fasting if it is done with a deep spiritual purpose, and to achieve some worthy end. One can appreciate the lofty objective of Mahatma Gandhi when he fasted for twenty-one days in 1924, and risked his life in order to try to bring about better and more brotherly
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