‘Fasting improves human immune system’

Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an: “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you – so that hopefully you will have taqwa.” The phrase “kutiba ‘alaikum” means that fasting is compulsory upon the ummah, the believing Muslims. It conveys a command to us which is […]

Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an: “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you – so that hopefully you will have taqwa.”
The phrase “kutiba ‘alaikum” means that fasting is compulsory upon the ummah, the believing Muslims. It conveys a command to us which is that we should observe the fasting.  
The ayah (Q2:183) also tells us that fasting was practiced by previous peoples. It informs us about the purpose of fasting – the acquisition of taqwa or consciousness of Allah – a heightened sense of awareness of Allah (swt) – in our lives.  The ayat ends: “And if someone does good of his own accord, it is better for him. But that you should fast is better for you, if you only knew.”
The import is that aside the unquantifiable reward we get for fasting from Allah (swt) which He alone knows, there is still in the exercise (fasting) other benefits which we cannot really comprehend.
One of such benefits was recently published from results of a research by an American university which found that “prolonged fasting might do a body good”.
Fasting in Islam is abstaining from all those things which have been designated as muftiraat: such as eating or ingesting into the body cavity, drinking and marital relations, from the beginning of fajr until the setting of the sun.
The University of Southern California (USC) researchers found that, “occasionally skipping food for some days put humans and mice on the path to a healthier immune system.”
The researchers “found that fasting for four or five days causes the body to generate new immune cells.
Valter Longo, one of the team’s researchers, explained to The Daily Beast that; “Any fasting is better than nothing,” adding that “humans can safely do this diet every 1 to 3 months.”
The study found that “during each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells.”
Longo said that this is especially valuable for those undergoing chemotherapy or aging, to wipe their overtaxed immune systems clean. “This jives with his previous research that fasting can weaken cancer in mice.
“There is some evidence that so-called intermittent fasting (all-day or partial-day fasting) can improve human longevity, and systematic fasting has been around centuries. The practice is quite common among the world’s religions. Muslims observe a month-long day fast for Ramadan and Jews go a full day for the High Holy Day, Yom Kippur.
“Perhaps there is some wisdom in the old scrolls,” the report concluded.
Muhammad bn Abubakar Zar’i states, in Dibbin-Nabawi: “ In fasting is a medical treatment for both the soul and natural dispositions (of man). When a person guards what he is supposed to guard while fasting, it will be of an immense help to both his mind and his body, and protect him against foreign entities that may be harmful to his body, as well as the removal of accumulated wastes, thus regulating the body’s (normal) functions.”