All praise belongs to Allāh the Most High, who created both life and death as a test to see who is better in carrying out deeds. Through His infinite mercy He blessed mankind with selected times and seasons in which the best deeds are made obligatory and the reward for good deeds is multiplied.
Allāh, the Most Wise, has made Fasting obligatory upon every sane Muslim adult, Allāh the Most High says, “O you who believe! Fasting has been made compulsory upon you just as it was made compulsory for those before you, so that you may develop Taqwa. (Fasting saves a person from sin because it develops self- restraint and drives away the passion that leads one to sin).
Ibn al-Qayyim Al Jauzi has said “The objective behind fasting is to restrain the soul from desires (for food, drink, and sexual relations), divert it from its normal circumstances, tame the strong desires, prepare it to attain the happiness and benefits (from fasting), and purify it from its untamed state.
On the last day of Sha’bān, our Beloved Nabi ﷺ gave a sermon and said:
“O people! A great and blessed month has approached you, a month containing a night better than a thousand months. Allāh has made fasting in its days an obligation and standing at night (in taraweeh) a means of Reward. Anyone who seeks nearness to Allāh in this month through any virtuous act will be like one who carried out an obligatory act at another time (outside of Ramadān), and whoever performs an obligatory act in this month will be like one who performed seventy such acts at another time. It is the month of patience, and the reward for patience is Paradise. It is the month of equality, the month in which the wealth of the believer is increased…”