One of the philosophies behind fasting in the holy month of Ramadan is to experience hunger and thereby understand the situation of those who are hungry and cannot afford to satisfy themselves properly. The following tradition quoted by Mawla Fayd Kashani from Man La Yahduruhu'I Faqih, speaks of the same: Imam al-Sadiq ('a) in an authentic narration whilst explaining the philosophy of fasting says:

Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, desired to maintain equality between His creatures and make the rich experience hunger and pain so that he may have pity on the weak and mercy on the hungry one.26

Causes of Hunger

Hunger is a widespread problem in today's world and has several causes, which may be classified into two kinds: self-related and external. The source of the self-related causes is the sufferer himself, whereas external causes stem from the society and other natural phenomena. To discuss both these kinds of causes is beyond the scope of this limited commentary . It is important however to study the limitations of these causes so that we may be able to struggle to avoid or eradicate them easily. The subject under discussion, as can be observed clearly, is also closely related to poverty . We had earlier mentioned the fact that every dependent thing stands by Allah's permission. Hence, if Allah (swt) does not want

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26 Mawla Fayd Kishani, al-Mahajjat al-Bayda', v.2, p. 124.