Taming And Training The Nafs.

[Abu Hafsat]

As-Salaam alaikum, 

The 'Ulama tell us that fasting and sleeplessness are 2 ways through which one can tame and train himself/herself on the spiritual path. The first generation ascetics have often been described as qa'im al-lail, wa sa'im ad-dahr..' spending their nights upright in prayer and maintaing a perpetual fast by day.' 

The old Sufi saying that the 3 elements of Sufi conduct are "little food, little sleep, little talk (to which often loneliness, keeping way from men, was added) is still as valid as it was a thousand years ago. 

The ascetic who spends his nights at prayers, as recommended in the Qur'an, will have the time to enjoy blessed conversation with his Lord through prayers. And eating little is even more important than to avoid sleep. The Sufis would fast frequently if not constantly. Early Sufis praise hunger, which they see as something stored up in Treasure-houses with Allah Ta'ala, and He gives it to none but whom He particularly loves, as observed by Abu Nasr as-Sarraj. And as Jalaluddin Rumi says, just as the host "brings better food when the guest eats little, God brings better, ie, spiritual, food to those who fast." 

Just as recollection or Zikr is food of the gnostics, so is hunger food of the ascetics.