It is not uncommon for inquisitive people of other faiths or none to attempt to understand the dynamics of the Blessed Month. Often, such inquiries are limited to questions regarding the length of the fast, the conditions that must be fulfilled to maintain it, or the physical hardships that are its product. Some, however, wish to engage further, and are prepared to abstain from food and drink during daylight hours to experience for themselves the pangs of hunger and thirst that are a product of a nil-by-mouth day. But this is not fasting. This is merely not eating and drinking. Fasting cannot be divorced from faith. To fast is to invert one’s normative practices in order to intensify one’s remembrance of The One. The fast is designed to remind of the miraculous perfection that defines human existence, and to raise awareness of how every moment is part of an intricately designed tapestry of beauty inimitably weaved by The One. The fast...