Scientific view of fasting

About 2 billion Muslims in different countries including Bangladesh across the globe are observing fasting, one of the five pillars of Islam, in this month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. Ramadan is one of the most sacred months, especially because, according to Islamic faith, Islam's holy scripture, al Qur'an, was sent down from heaven as a guidance for men and women, a declaration of direction and a means for salvation. During this holy month, fasting starts at dawn and continues till sunset. Fasting is observed by most believers. However, in earlier times, some science-minded people would often raise the question of if depriving a human body of food and water for an entire day might cause health problems like dehydration or shortage of blood sugar.

In this connection, it would be worthwhile to mention here a research paper titled, 'Unraveling the metabolic health benefits of fasting related to religious beliefs: A narrative review'. The said research report was published by Science Direct, a Dutch-origin online platform for e-books and peer-reviewed scientific journals. Fasting related to religious beliefs was defined in this research paper as abstinence of food for varying duration. And it has been associated with increased longevity and a potential role for human health. From a spiritual point of view, however, religious fasting aims at purgation of soul and body. Also, according to this research, religious fasting is primarily based on various levels of caloric restrictions and limitations of food items and so on. Cumulative research supports the health-improving effects of caloric restriction on cerebrovascular and cardiovascular systems including healthy aging, lowering insulin resistance and triggering insulin sensitivity and action, enhancing mitochondrial health, DNA repair and autophagy. Notably, mitochondrial health is about the proper conditions of the sub-cellular structures in human body cells that produce energy and control cell death. Autophagy is when human body itself consumes its own tissues as a metabolic process during starvation. The condition may even be caused by certain diseases.

As is obvious from the research report, the technical details of which could not be included here for obvious reasons, it clearly points to the health benefits of fasting as practised in Islam. However, in certain health conditions fasting is not recommended in the said research report. In Islam, too, fasting is not made compulsory in the case of certain health conditions. So, science-minded people who are critical or fasting or any other religious practices, especially those observed by Muslims, would do well to also consider what science really says about these ancient Muslin religious practices. There are sceptics who are critical of only the practices like fasting, or other rituals observed in Islamic faith, but not those in other religions on the grounds that those are cultural. That means Islamic faith is alien and not part of this region. Nothing can be farther from truth. A religious belief that is being practised by hundreds of millions of people for over a millennia cannot be but part of the culture of the geographical region under consideration. If anything, it cannot be a scientific view of culture. Consider the case of Christianity, which originated in the Middle East, but is now the dominant culture of what is now known as Europe. In fact, there was no such thing called Europe during classical antiquity except that its reference could be found in Homeric Hymn or in the works of Anaximander and Heraclitus in 6th century BC. But that has hardly any relation to the European continent as we know today. Anyway, paganism in its multifarious forms was practised before Christianity came in that region. So, to say that culture is entirely geographically defined is purely a political construct. The concept of cultural purity, too, smacks of the idea of racial purity, which is basically unscientific.

So, a certain cultural bias against rituals including Ramadan fasting found among some cultural theorists is unfortunate. It is important to recognise the contribution of Ramadan and other Islamic rituals practised here to the overall cultural mosaic of this part of the world.

sfalim.ds@gmail.com