The blessed month of Ramadan is a month which contains a night which is better than a thousand months, a month in which fasting during the day has been made obligatory, and praying during the night supererogatory, whomsoever does good in this month will be rewarded the equal of doing an obligatory action, and however fulfils an obligatory action will be rewarded seventy times that action in any other month.

It is the month of patience, the reward of which is paradise, it is the month of helping others, a month when ones provisions increase, a person who feeds a fasting person will have his sins forgiven and will be delivered from the fire while his reward will be the same as the fasting person without anything being reduced from his own fast.

The first ten days of fasting are for mercy, the second ten days of fasting for forgiveness and the last ten days for deliverance from the fire. In Ramadan the gates of Paradise are open while the gates of hell are closed, the devils are chained up and a caller in the heavens calls out, oh doer of good, come forward and oh doer of evil desist, this is how Ramadan speaks of its own self.

Allah honoured Ramadan further by sending down the most precious of books on the most beloved of people, Allah says The month of Ramadan in which we sent down the Quran, as a guide for people and a clear proof for the guidance and the criterion between good and bad..

Allah has honoured likewise all those who fast, the scales of good giving in their hands, as has been recorded in the sound collections of Bukhari and Muslim, All the actions of the son of Adam will be rewarded anywhere from tenfold to seven hundred, except fasting, for indeed it is for me and I reward it as I please, he leaves his food, drink and desires for my sake. The fasting person has two moments of joy, a joy when he breaks his fast and a joy when he meets Allah with his fast. Indeed the breath of a fasting person is more pleasant in the sight of Allah than the smell of musk. If anyone of you is fasting and someone either curses him or fights him, he should say I am fasting, I am fasting.
Behind fasting there are many Godly secrets: Fasting is that wonderful institution from which graduate the Muttaqin, as Allah says, Fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may gain Taqwa. Fasting is the vehicle via which one can gain taqwah. The time one used to spend in eating and drinking or play and amusement is instead used for acts of worship.

Likewise fasting gives life to dead hearts, that is because day to day acts place veils between our hearts, if we stop these as the heart wakes up and pays attention.
Likewise fasting makes a person feel a sense of responsibility towards others, he remembers the empty stomachs of the poor and the destitute.
Likewise fasting gives hope to the sinner, the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) said, indeed Allah delivers form the fire of hell on every night from the nights of Ramadan a hundred thousand souls from the fire of hell, and on the final night of Ramadan, Allah will deliver form the hell the like of the sum of all the previous nights.

All of the above mentioned blessing and favours cast upon the fasting person will not be fulfilled unless the person fasts as he should fast. Indeed fasting is not merely about refraining from food and drink only, the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) said, Perhaps a fasting will gain nothing from his fast except hunger and thirst.

That is why Abu Hamid Alghazali said, Know that fasting has three stages, the fasting of the general public, the fasting of the special people, and the fasting of those even more special.
As for the first stage this is to refrain from food and drink and to prevent the private parts from fulfilling their desires.
As for the second stage, it is the fasting with the eyes, the tongue, the hands and all the other parts of the body.
And the final stage which is the highest level of fasting is the fasting of the heart from all worldly, vain and baseless talk to become a heart that is solely connected to Allah.

The question is which level are we on?