The plan of fasting presented by Islam is perfect both as regards objectives and regulations. It holds the greatest assurance of goodness and, in it, the glory and excellence of Divine Wisdom is also supremely manifest. As the Qur'aan states:
'Should He not know what He created? And He is the Subtile, the Aware.' (Qur'aan lxvii:14)
God has chosen the month of Ramadhaan (in which the holy Qur'aan was revealed) for fasting. In it a Muslim is enjoined to go without food and drink during the day but not at night. This method of fasting was prevalent among the Arabs of those days and in the Islamic Shari'ah, too, it is the established rule and confirmed practice.
Writes Hazrat Shah Waliullah: 'In fasting the day extends from sunrise to sunset because it was in this was that days were measured in Arabia and the fast of Aashura was kept during the same hours. The month begins with the appearance of the new moon for the Arab calendar is not based on the Solar months.' (Hujjat)
God has prescribed fasting in the month of Ramadhaan and declared the two to be inseparable. The joining together of these two blessings is an act of great significance primarily becase it was in this month that the Qur'aan was revealed and the joyful tidings of a new dawn were given to the ailing humanity. It was, therefore, appropriate that just as the rising of the sun was linked with the commencement of the fast, the month of Ramadhaan, too, in which the whole of mankind emerged from a long spell of darkness, should be marked out for fasting, more so when it was also superior to all other months in effulgence and propitiousness and deserved that its days should be adorned with fasting and nights with prayer.
A most intimate association exists between fasting and the Qur'aan. The holy Prophet ( Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam ) used to pay the greatest attention to the recitation of the Qur'aan in Ramadhaan. It is related by ibn Abbaas ( Radhiallaahu Anhu ) that the Prophet ( Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam ) was the most generous of all men but in the month of Ramadhaan, when the Archangels Jibraaeel used to come to him, his generosity knew no bounds. In Ramadhaan, Jibraaeel came to him every night and joined in the recitation of the Qur'aan. During those days, the Prophet ( Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam ) appeared to be faster than the wind in acts of charity and benevolence. (Bukhari and Muslim)
Shaikh Ahmad Farooqi Mujaddid Alif Thaani says in one of his Letters that 'this month bears a special relationship with the Qur'aan, and hence, it was in it that the Qur'aan was revealed. It is endued with every kind of virtue and blessedness. The blessings which fall to the lot of a man in a whole year are as insignificant when compared to the blessings of Ramadhaan as a drop of water is before an ocean. The attainment of inner peace and tranquility in this month suffices for the entire year while mental disquiet and uneasiness during it takes the whole of the year in its grasp. Blessed, indeed, are they with whom this auspicious month departs in good pleasure while those who deprive themselves of goodness and felicity by displeasing it are, for sure, doomed and accursed.'
The great Mujaddid, in another Letter, writes, 'If a person is fortunate enough to perform a good deed in the month of Ramadhaan the blessedness of it will not depart from him for the whole year and if this month is spent in distress and frustration the danger is that the whole of the year will pass for him in the same way.' (Maktoobaat vol.1 pg.45)