The Man Who Never Felt Hunger
Generation after generation, people strive to arrange their lives so as to want for nothing and certainly never go hungry. However, hunger is absolutely essential for us.
Never to feel hungry. It sounds like a punishment. I am sure many would disagree, especially those who have experienced real poverty and malnutrition. But a constant state of satiety dulls a person’s senses. Hunger, on the other hand, does the opposite.
Yes, perhaps, at its core, it is an unpleasant feeling but just remember how vivid a sip of water is for someone quenching his thirst. How much is he willing to give for that sip? How does he perceive this life-giving liquid, which on other days would attract no attention at all? How vivid is the taste of the most ordinary home-cooked food when we are hungry?
Hunger brings back into our lives the vividness of emotions and experiences associated with the possession of the smallest things: a glass of water and a piece of bread. That is why the well-fed do not understand the hungry.
No matter how much we occasionally whine and complain about our daily problems, people today live much better than they did hundreds of years ago and this is especially true when it comes to satiety. We are practically always full. And it is killing us.
Obesity, diabetes, various food allergies... we are almost literally killing ourselves with food. We need hunger to save ourselves.
This is only one side of the coin. Hunger and satiety directly affect our emotional well-being. Constant satiety dulls the senses. Moreover, it breeds selfishness and stinginess. People even say, “he is bored with plenty”. A satiated person begins to commit completely thoughtless or even crazy acts, just to entertain himself.
Hunger, on the contrary, makes us more sensitive to the problems of others, responsive, gentle, compassionate; we treat our loved ones and those around us better. This directly affects society as a whole.
This is not a call to fast all the time. Of course not. It is not given to us to run from one extreme to another. But now, as we share our thoughts, the month of Ramadan has not long ago left us and this topic is still relevant.
Another reason to thank the Almighty – for the opportunity to fast, for understanding its benefits, for the opportunity to feel the pulse of life through hunger and to treat our bodies with care, protecting them from overeating and our minds from satiety and becoming kinder and more moral.
There are many blessing, and all praise for this goes to Allah ﷻ, the Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who conveyed and explained to us the wisdom of fasting, the etiquette of eating and drinking, and much more, without which our lives would be very difficult.
