Among the further benefits of fasting is that, as we have noted, it trains a person to give up what he is accustomed to for the sake of drawing near to Allah. Hence Allah, Mighty and Exalted, says in the divine ḥadith: “Fasting is Mine and I alone shall reward it; he has abandoned his desire, his food, and his drink for My sake.” This puts the fasting person to the test: he relinquishes his appetites, pleasures, and beloved things solely to please Allah, preferring what Allah loves over what his own soul loves. That is the highest form of worship and one of the greatest fruits of fasting.

Fasting also habituates a person to doing good and to showing compassion toward the needy and the poor. When he himself tastes the pangs of hunger and thirst, his heart is softened and his feelings toward his needy brethren become tender.

Fasting was enjoined in the second year after the Hijrah, and the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—fasted nine Ramadans. He lived in Madinah for ten years, and since fasting was prescribed in the second year, he fasted nine Ramadans in total.

As for the saying, “The one who performs cupping and the one who is cupped have broken their fast,” it means that the cupper’s fast is invalidated because he draws the blood by sucking it through the cupping horn, and the fast of the person who is cupped is likewise invalidated because blood has been extracted from him. Thus both have broken the fast: the cupper, who removes the blood with his instrument, and the one from whom the blood is withdrawn.