REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Council of Wanita Al Irsyad organization Experts Sofiah Balfas conveyed some of the miracles of fasting that she felt, both from personal experience, and a number of books she has read. Sofia begins her story with the story of her struggle against an autoimmune disease she suffers from.
“I have had quite a long experience of illness and it is difficult for doctors to diagnose. I have been treated in Europe and Singapore, but there are still diseases that cannot be detected yet. My hemoglobin is always low because I am iron anemic,” Sofiah Balfas told more than 150 members of PB Wanita Al Irsyad who connected via Zoom app and YouTube livestream some time ago.
Sofiah explains that the lack of iron in the body can lead to chronic and dangerous diseases. Iron deficiency is always synonymous with low hemoglobin levels, and causes the body to be limp and prone to disease.
“So does my husband, he has high blood sugar, and he has been ill for years,” she added.
For Sofiah and her husband, fasting was a guide given by Allah as a solution to her health problems during this time. She and her husband became determined to do the Mondays and Thursdays fast, although she admits that in the first weeks it was very difficult.
“The first time I tried fasting until the tenth fast it was miserable, especially me and my husband also worked, and the temptation was hard,” says Sofiah.
She said that as soon as the fourth month entered, the blood sugar medication, which was usually my husband's mandatory intake, was gradually reduced by the doctor. “And by the seventh month, my husband was really able to get off the drug,” she said.
Sofiah said that until now, nine years since she and her husband started fasting regularly, her husband has never taken any medications. Even the symptoms of high blood that the husband had previously suffered seemed to disappear somewhere.
“The miracle of fasting that my husband and I felt, after not the seventh of the Monday-Thursday fasting routine, my husband's illness has never recurred and has not taken any medication, even for the last nine years,” says Sofiah.
The magic of fasting is not only felt by Sofiah's husband, but also by herself personally. As a sufferer of an autoimmune disease with a hemoglobin level that never exceeds 9, Sofia initially admitted to hesitating to start increasing her fasting worship from Mondays and Thursdays to fasting of the Prophet (intermittent).
“After starting to increase fasting to David's fast, my hemoglobin increased dramatically, initially only 9, then after the fourth month, my Hb became 14. In fact, my Hb went up very hard, and because of the fasting routine, my Hb really increased, and from there I felt the magic of fasting,” says Sofiah.
