INTRODUCTION

The Holy Quraan says: O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may learn self-restraint.(2:183)
Sayyidah Ayesha (radi Allahu anha) narrated: During the pre-Islamic period of ignorance the Quraish used to fast on the day of 10th of Muharram, and the Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) himself used to observe fast on it too. But when he came to Madinatul Munawwara, he fasted on that day and ordered the Muslims to fast on it. When the order of compulsory fasting in Ramadaan was revealed, fasting in Ramadaan became obligatory, and fasting on Ashura was given up, and whoever wished to fast (on it) did so, and whoever did not wish to fast on it, did not fast. (Bukhari)
Fasting is one of the five fundamental articles upon which Islam stands. It is a universal institution in as much as all the religions of the world and all the great religious personalities adopted fasting as the principal method of controlling and killing passions. The Kelt, the Romans, the Babylonians and the Assyrians practiced it. The philosophers, cynic, Stoic, Pythagorean or Neo-Platonic, left advice for fast. The followers of Hinduism, Jainism, Confucius and Zoroaster practiced it. The Jews observed an annual fast on the Day of Atonement in commemoration of the descent of Moses from Sinai. Nabi Moosa (alaihis salaam) prepared himself to receive Revelation from Almighty Allah after forty days of fasting. Nabi Esa (alaihis salaam) fasted for forty days in the desert and commanded his followers to fast. (Matthew 4:16)
Thus, the institution of fasting existed in some form or the other till it fell into disuse owing to want of method, regularity and time.
One of the fruits of Islam, says a European observer, William Paton, has been that stubborn patience which comes of the submission to the absolute Will of Allah.Now, it is the institution of fasting, more than anything else that is responsible for the generation of this stubborn, durable patience in the Muslim character.
By the greater number of religions, in the lower, middle and higher cultures alike, fasting is largely prescribed. (Cheyne and Blacks Encyclopaedia Biblica, pg. 106)

It would be difficult to name any religious system of any description in which it is wholly unrecognized. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. X, p.193, 11th Edition)

We have no evidence of any practice of fasting in pre-Islamic pagan Arabia, but the institution was, of course, well established among the Christians and Jews.
The injunction about fasting was revealed in 2 A.H. in Islam. It gave the institution of fasting a finishing touch and introduced therein method, regularity and meaning, which go together to make it perfect and ever-living. Fasting will not die a natural death in Islam. Like Salaah, the institution of fasting is kept alive as it is observed every year in the world of Islam and forms the regulating principle of their lives.
Fasting was previously resorted to as a sign of grief of mourning or for commemoration of a great event. The underlying idea was to propitiate an angry Allah. Islam abolished this pantheist idea and introduced a highly developed significance. The object is that you may guard against evil. In other words, the chief object of fasting is to generate power in man which can control unruly passions just as a beast is brought under control by keeping it occasionally hungry and then by giving it food.
In Islamic fasting there is nothing to be eaten or drunk from the early dawn till the setting of the sun. In order to put an effective check on passions, even intercourse with the wife in the hours of fasting has been prohibited. In other religions, this has not been so prohibited and therefore, there has been no effective check on passions.
Fasting is methodical in Islam as in every month of Ramadaan, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate all have to fast with the same spirit of common servant-hood of Allah and universal brotherhood of man. Islam has not forgotten to reserve provisions for optional fasting at the choice of every Muslim. The doors of voluntary fasting are open to all.