A few days ago, I decided to begin a voluntary one-day fast. (Perhaps I was inspired by all the stories I
have been hearing and reading about Lent.) I plan to repeat this every month
moving forward.
During the day, I made lunch for my son, and I had an intense
feeling of desire to eat because of the smell of the food. What my son was
having for lunch was nothing extraordinary, nor was it a favorite dish of
mine. As I was fasting, I obviously had to control my desire and just
serve him, and then wait for sunset to break my fast.
This experience gave me the feeling that I am somehow, just for
few hours, vicariously living a life of one of millions of people who serve the
food to others but cannot afford to eat the same food. This not only
applies to the people of poor countries but also to rich countries like USA.
While growing up in India, I know firsthand how millions of young
boys, girls and adults serve in the food industry and make all the delicious
food and serve it to rich. Most likely, they cannot afford to eat the
same meal or even something close to it. I wonder how does this make them
feel day in and day out?
Or what about the millions of minimum wage job holders in the
restaurant industry in the US? How do they feel when they serve these
expensive dishes to patrons but can never afford those for themselves and for
their families?
I had that kind of feeling while fasting and serving lunch to my
son. In Islamic tradition, fasting is
mainly a form of worship to make one God-conscious, but there are many
secondary benefits. One of them is that it puts you in a situation like
what I mentioned, which will make you reflect about the people who
have to fast involuntarily.
Ultimately, fasting should create empathy for those “have nots.”
And that should ultimately lead one to work for change, work to reduce the
gap between rich and poor, work to make life better for everybody, and
hopefully should lead to less complaints about what we don’t have and more
appreciation of what we do have.
I hope one of the great presidents, Abraham Lincoln would forgive me, when I end with malice toward none, with empathy for poor and downtrodden, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to make this world a better place.
