What do different faiths say about fasting?

Sikhism takes a notably distinctive position on fasting, one that can feel genuinely surprising if you are coming from a background where fasting is treated as a natural part of religious life. Rather than encouraging it, the Sikh tradition largely discourages fasting as a spiritual practice. This is not indifference to discipline or self-restraint, but a deliberate theological position rooted in how Sikhism understands the relationship between the body, the world, and the divine.

The reasoning runs something like this: the human body is a gift from Waheguru, the Wondrous Teacher, and it is meant to be cared for rather than punished or denied. Sikhism is deeply suspicious of asceticism, the idea that mortifying or depriving the body brings you closer to God. The Guru Granth Sahib, the living scripture and eternal Guru of the Sikhs, repeatedly cautions against the kind of outward religious performance that becomes more about display or ego than genuine devotion. Fasting, in this framework, risks becoming exactly that: a visible act of piety that actually reinforces the ego it claims to dissolve.

The ten human Gurus who shaped Sikhism between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries were consistently wary of rituals inherited from Hindu or other traditions that they saw as superstition or empty form. Guru Nanak, the founder, challenged many of the religious conventions of his time with a direct, sometimes sharp clarity. The tradition he began was concerned above all with the inner life, with turning the mind towards God through meditation on the divine name, through honest work, and through service to others. If your attention during a fast is on your hunger, your endurance, or how holy you appear, you have drifted away from the point entirely.

This does not mean Sikhism is uninterested in self-discipline. Quite the opposite. The concept of rehat, the code of conduct and discipline that shapes Sikh life, demands real commitment. But that discipline is expressed through regular prayer, through the practice of simran (meditating on God's name), through sangat (gathering with the community), and through seva (selfless service). These are the practices Sikhism trusts to transform a person from the inside. Denying yourself food for a day, in this view, changes very little unless the deeper habits of the mind are also being worked on.

For someone raised in another tradition where fasting feels like a natural expression of devotion, this can take some sitting with. It is worth understanding that Sikhism is not saying spiritual effort is unimportant. It is saying that the effort needs to go in the right direction. A Sikh who skips a meal but spends the day in anger, gossip, or self-centred thinking has, by the tradition's own logic, gained nothing. Whereas a Sikh who eats normally but spends time in honest reflection, prayer, and care for those around them is living the practice. The test is not what you withheld from your body, but what you gave of yourself to others and to God.

It is also worth noting that individual Sikhs, particularly those with family roots in South Asian cultures, sometimes observe fasts drawn from broader cultural or family traditions. The Sikh tradition would gently distinguish between cultural practice and religious teaching here, without necessarily condemning people for the choices they make. What it would resist is the idea that fasting in itself earns merit, draws you closer to God, or demonstrates spiritual seriousness. In Sikhism, the divine is not impressed by hunger. What moves closer to the divine is a mind quieted, a heart opened, and hands put to use in the world.