Why was fasting prescribed by Allah?

The third pillar; fasting, fasting in the month of Ramadan. One month every year, Muslims are required to fast for thirty days, daylight hours. Fasting is something instituted virtually in every religion. Even if people today don’t do it, we go back into the scriptures and we’ll find people of the past did it. Fasting was prescribed by Allah as it was good for human beings, whether physically or spiritually. Of course the spiritual concerns are the greatest. Fasting teaches self-restraint, control of one’s basic desires. So that throughout the rest of the year when we’re not fasting, the lessons learned in fasting should be applied. And of course all of what we’re talking about here is the ideal principles that people should strive for.

Now you might say, “Well I know some Muslims who fast every year and they don’t seem very restrained, they don’t manage to restrain themselves at all.” Well probably because they were not fasting as they were supposed to fast because there are principles and rules for fasting. There is the message of the law, you don’t eat or drink, or have sexual relations between dawn and sunset. That’s the message, however there’s also the spiritual side. Where the Prophet said, that the person who does not give up back biting, telling lies, cursing, Allah has no reward for their fast. [1] So, a person may go through the physical requirements, but the spiritual requirements have not taken care of so naturally. Therefore, the fast doesn’t have the required impact on the individual.

Reference:

[1] Sahih Bukhari, Book of fasting, Hadith no. 1903.