Two Kinds of Fasting

“Our Master the Prophetﷺ says, ‘There are many of those who fast who get only hunger and thirst for their efforts and no other benefit’. There are also those who break their fast when they eat, and those whose fast continues even after they have eaten. These are the ones who keep their senses and their thoughts free of evil and their hands and their tongues from hurting others. It is for these that Allah Most High promises, ‘Fasting is a deed done for My sake, and I am the one who gives its reward.’ About the two kinds of fasting our Master the Prophetﷺ says, ‘The one who fasts has two satisfactions. One is when he breaks his fast at the end of the day. The other is when he sees.’

Those who know the outer form of the religion say that the first satisfaction of the one who fasts is the pleasure of eating after a day of fasting, and the meaning of the satisfaction ‘when he sees’ is when someone who fasted the whole month of Ramadan sees the new moon marking the end of the fast and beginning the festivities of the holiday. The ones who know the inner meaning of fasting say that the joy of breaking the fast is the day when the believer will enter Paradise and partake of the delights therein, and the meaning of the greater joy of seeing is when the faithful sees the truth of Allah with the secret eye of his heart.