of ittaqū, or, as generally in ittaqu-llāh where Allāh is the object of ittaqū, and therefore the significance of ittaqū in all these cases is a fulfilment of obligations. In fact, in the language of the Holy Qur’ān, to be a muttaqī is to attain to the highest stage of spiritual development. “Allāh is the friend of the muttaqīn” (45:19); “Allāh loves the muttaqīn” (3:76; 9:4, 7); “Allāh is with the muttaqīn” (2:194; 9:36, 123)’ “The good end is for the muttaqīn” (7:128; 11:49; 28:83); “For the muttaqīn is an excellent resort” (38:49) these and numerous similar passages show clearly that the muttaqī, according to the Holy Qur’ān, is the man who has attained to the highest stage of spiritual development. And as the object of fasting is to be a muttaqī, the conclusion is evident that the Holy Qur’ān enjoins fasting with the object of making man ascend the spiritual heights.

A spiritual discipline

Fasting, according to Islām, is primarily a spiritual discipline: On two occasions in the Holy Qur’ān,4 those who fast are called sā’iḥ, (from sāḥa meaning he travelled) or spiritual wayfarers; and according to one authority, when a person refrains, not only from food and drink but from all kinds of evil, he is called a sā’iḥ (R.) While speaking of Ramadzān, the month in which fasting is ordained, the Holy Qur’ān specially refers to nearness to God, as if its attainment were an aim in fasting, and then adds: “So they should hear My call (by fasting) and believe in Me, that they may walk in the right way” (2:186). In Ḥadīth too, special stress is laid on the fact that the seeking of Divine pleasure should be the ultimate object in fasting: “Whoever fasts during Ramadzān, having faith in Me and seeking My pleasure” (Bu. 2:28). The Holy Prophet said, “Fasting is a shield, so the faster should not indulge in foul speech … and surely the breath of a fasting man is pleasanter to Allāh than the odour of musk; he refrains from food and drink and other desires to seek My pleasure: fasting is for Me only” (Bu. 30:2). No temptation is greater than the temptation of satisfying one’s thirst and hunger when drink and food are in one’s possession, yet this temptation is overcome not once or twice, as if it were by chance, but day after day regularly for a whole month, with a set purpose of drawing closer and closer to the Divine Being. A man