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THE
HOLY MONTH OF RAMADAN AND
FASTING DURING IT
In
the Name of God, the Merciful, the
Compassionate
The
month of Ramadan in which the Quran
was revealed, a guidance for
mankind, clear signs of guidance
and the criterion. (2:185)
Fasting in the holy month of Ramadan
is one of the foremost of the five
pillars of Islam
Fasting
in the holy month of Ramadan is one of
the foremost of the five pillars of
Islam, as well as being among the
greatest of the symbols of Islam. That
fasting has many purposes relating both
to the Lordship of God and thanksgiving
for His bounties, and to man’s
individual and collective life, as well
as to his self-training and
self-discipline.
One
of the multiple purposes of fasting
connected with the Lordship of God is
that God manifests the Perfection of His
Lordship and His being the All-Merciful
and All-Compassion-ate upon the surface
of the earth which He has designed as a
table upon which He has laid out all the
varieties of His bounties in a way
beyond the imagination of the
inhabitants of the earth. Nevertheless,
people cannot perfectly discern the
reality of this situation because of
heedlessness and the blinding veil of
causality. But in the holy month of
Ramadan, the believers, like an army
waiting for the order ‘March!’,
display a manner of worshipping in
expectation of the command of ‘Help
yourself!’ towards the end of the day,
and they thus respond to that
magnificent and universal Mercy with a
comprehensive and harmonious act of
collective worship.
Fasting is the key to a true,
sincere, comprehensive and
universal thanksgiving
One
of the numerous purposes of fasting in
the holy month of Ramadan concerning
thanksgiving for the bounties of God
Almighty is that there is a price for
the food brought from the kitchen of a
king by the servant carrying the trays
of food. Obviously, it would be folly of
an infinite degree to tip the servant
but not to recognize the king who sent
the food - an act which would mean
disrespect for that gift of precious
food. In the same way, God Almighty has
spread for mankind His countless
bounties of infinite variety on the face
of the earth. These bounties require the
payment of a price, which is
thanksgiving. The apparent causes of
those bounties, or those who bring them
to us are like the food-carrying servant
in the example above. We pay the
servants, feel indebted to them, and
sometimes thank them and thereby show
them a degree of respect they have not
merited. The true Giver of Bounties is
infinitely more deserving of thanks for
those bounties received than the causes
or the means by which they come to us.
One thanks Him by acknowledging one’s
need for the bounties, and being fully
appreciative of them and ascribing them
directly to Him.
Fasting
during the holy month of Ramadan is the
key to a true, sincere, comprehensive
and universal thanksgiving. Many people
are unable to appreciate most of the
bounties they enjoy since they suffer no
hunger. A piece of dry bread, for
example, means nothing as Divine bounty
for those who are full, especially if
they are rich, although it is, as even
testified by his sense of taste, a very
valuable bounty of God in the sight of a
believer at the time of breaking his
fast. Everyone, whether a king or the
poorest of people, are favored, in the
holy Ramadan, with a heart-felt
thanksgiving by understanding the value
of Divine bounties. Also, because of
being forbidden to eat during daytime, a
believer thinks: those bounties do not
originally belong to me, and I am not
free to regard them as mere food or
drink. One Other owns them, and He
grants them to me. So, I should wait for
His permission to eat them. By thus
acknowledging whatever he eats and
drinks to be a gift of God, the believer
thanks God tacitly. On account of this,
fasting becomes a key to thanksgiving,
which is a real human duty in many
respects.
Fasting has many purposes in
connection with man’s collective
life, one of which is this:
God
has created human beings differently in
respect of their livelihood. Because of
this, He calls the rich to the help of
the poor. However, only through the
hunger of fasting can the rich feel the
hunger and tragic situation of the poor.
Without fasting, many rich and
self-indulgent people cannot perceive
how painful hunger and poverty are, and
to what extent the poor need care.
Whereas, care for one’s fellow-beings
is a foundation of true thanksgiving.
There is certainly one poorer than each
individual, so everyone is obliged to
show care for the one poorer than him.
Unless, therefore, one is obliged to
suffer hunger, it is nearly impossible
for him to do good or give help to his
fellow-beings as required by that duty
of care. Even if he does, he cannot do
it as perfectly as he should, since he
does not feel the condition of the
hungry to the same extent.
There are many Divine purposes for the
obligation of fasting
There
are many Divine purposes for the
obligation of fasting during Ramadan
related to self-training and
self-discipline. One of those purposes
is as follows:
The
carnal self desires to be free and
unrestricted and regards itself to be
so. It even wishes, by its very nature,
for an imagined lordship and free,
arbitrary action. Disinclined to
thinking that it is being trained and
tested through the countless bounties of
God, it swallows up, like an animal,
those bounties in the manner of a thief
or robber, especially if it has a degree
of wealth and power accompanied by
heedlessness.
It
is in holy Ramadan that the selfhood of
everyone, whether the richest or the
poorest, understands that, rather than
owning itself, it is owned by One Other,
and rather then being free, it is a
servant. Unless it is ordered, or
permitted, it is unable to do even the
most common thing like eating and
drinking, and thereby its illusory
lordship is shattered, it can admit to
servanthood and performs its real duty,
which is thanksgiving.
Fasting
also prevents the carnal self from
rebellious acts and adorns it with
good morals.
Man’s
carnal self forgets itself through
heedlessness. It does not see, nor does
it want to see, the infinite impotence
and poverty and the defects of the
utmost degree in its very nature. It
does not reflect how it is exposed to
misfortunes and subject to decay, that
it consists of flesh and bones tending
to rapid disintegration and
decomposition. It rushes upon the world
with a violent greed and attachment as
if it had a steel body and would live
forever. It clings to everything
profitable and pleasurable. In this
state, it forgets its Creator, Who
trains it with a perfect care. Being
immersed in the swamp of bad morals, it
thinks about neither the consequences of
its life in this world nor about its
afterlife.
Fasting
during holy Ramadan, however, causes
even the most heedless and stubborn to
feel their weakness and innate poverty.
Hunger becomes an important
consideration for them and reminds them
how fragile their bodies are. They come
to perceive to what extent they need
compassion and care and, giving up
haughtiness, feel a desire to take
refuge in the Divine Court in perfect
helplessness and destitute, and rise to
knock at the door of Mercy with the hand
of tacit thanksgiving, provided, of
course, that heedlessness has not yet
corrupted the individual completely.
Fasting has a connection also with the
revelation of the holy Quran
Fasting
during Ramadan has a connection also
with the revelation of the holy Quran.
As is generally known, the Quran
began to be revealed in Ramadan. This
connection has many implications. One of
these is that - just as if the Quran
were to be revealed in every Ramadan, a
believer should seek to be like the
angels and abandon eating and drinking,
and divest himself of the vain
preoccupations and gross needs of his
carnal self. During Ramadan, he should
recite or listen to the Quran as if
it were being revealed for the first
time or, if he is able, listen to the
Quran as if he were hearing it
recited by the Prophet Muhammad, upon
him be peace and blessings, or by the
Archangel Gabriel to Muhammad, or
revealed by God Himself to Muhammad
through Gabriel. Also, he should respect
the Quran in the actions of his daily
life and, by conveying its message to
the others, demonstrate the Divine
purpose for revealing the Quran.
The
Muslim world becomes in Ramadan like a
huge mosque where millions of reciters
recite the Quran, that heavenly
address, to the inhabitants of the
earth. Demonstrating the reality of the
verse, The month of Ramadan, in which
the Quran was revealed, Ramadan
proves itself to be the month of the Quran:
while some members of the vast
congregation in that great mosque of the
Muslim world listen to its recitation
with solemn reverence, others recite it
themselves. As it is most disagreeable
to forsake that heavenly spiritual state
by giving in to the prompting of the
carnal self to eat and drink in the
sacred ‘mosque’, an action that is
bound to provoke the dislike of the
whole congregation - it is also most
disagreeable and must, plainly, provoke
the dislike and contempt of the whole
Muslim world to oppose the Muslims who
fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
Fasting has also many purposes related
to the spiritual rewards of man.
Fasting
during Ramadan has also many purposes
related to the spiritual rewards of man,
who has been sent to the world to sow it
with the seeds of the next life. The
following paragraphs explain one of
those purposes.
The
rewards for the good deeds done in
Ramadan are multiplied by a thousand.
According to one hadith, ten rewards are
given for each letter of the Wise Quran.
The recitation of a single letter means
ten good deeds, and brings forth ten
fruits of Paradise. However, in the
whole month of Ramadan, the reward for
each letter of the Quran is
multiplied not by ten, but by a
thousand, even by thousands for some
particular verses like the ‘Verse of
the Throne’. The reward is still
greater on the Friday nights of holy
Ramadan. Furthermore, the reward for
each letter of the holy Quran recited
in the Night of Power is multiplied by
thirty thousand. Thus, the Quran,
each of whose letters yields thirty
thousand permanent fruits of Paradise,
becomes in Ramadan like a huge blessed
tree which produces for believers
millions of permanent fruits of
Paradise. Consider, then, how holy and
profitable a trade this is, and know in
how great a loss those are who do not
appreciate the letters of the Quran!
So,
the holy month of Ramadan is the most
proper time for carrying on that most
profitable ‘trade’ in the name of
the afterlife. It is like a most fertile
field to cultivate for the harvest of
the afterlife. For the multiplication of
the reward for good deeds, it is like
April in spring. It is also a sacred,
illustrious festival for the ‘parade’
of those who worship the Sovereignty of
God’s Lordship. Because of this,
fasting is made obligatory for believers
in Ramadan so that they should not
gratify the animal appetites of the
carnal self and indulge in its useless
fancies. Since they become like angels
while fasting or engaged in a trade for
the next life, each acts as a mirror
reflecting the Self-Sufficiency of God
by moving in the direction of becoming a
pure spirit manifested in corporeal
dress through the abandonment of the
world for a fixed period. In fact, the
holy Ramadan contains, and causes a
believer to gain, through fasting, a
permanent life in a short period in this
world.
One
Ramadan may enable a believer to
gain as much reward as could be
earned in a life of eighty years.
One
Ramadan may enable a believer to gain as
much reward as could be earned in a life
of eighty years. This can be decisively
proved by the fact that the Night of
Power is, as declared by the Quran,
more profitable than eighty years in
which there is not a Night of Power. A
worldly king may announce a few days’
festival in the year to mark some
special occasions like his accession to
the throne, and he honors his faithful
subjects on those days with special
favors. Likewise, the Eternal, Majestic
King of the eighteen thousand worlds
sent down in holy Ramadan the Wise Quran,
which is His exalted decree to all of
those eighteen thousand worlds. For this
reason, wisdom requires that Ramadan
should be a special Divine festival in
which the bounties of God’s Lordship
will be poured out and the spirit beings
will come together. Since, then, Ramadan
is a Divinely ordained festival, it is
proper that fasting in it would be
commanded so that people should withdraw
to some extent from their bodily
preoccupations. Excellence in fasting,
aside from its preventing the
satisfaction of the stomach, is possible
through refraining from sins committed
by the senses or members of the body,
such as the eyes, ears, heart, mind, and
imaginative and contemplative faculties,
and using them, instead, in the acts of
worship particular to each. For example,
the one who fasts, should prevent his
tongue from lying, backbiting, bad
language and indecent talk, and make it
busy with the recitation of the Quran,
glorification of God, seeking His
forgiveness, and calling His blessing
upon the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be
peace and blessings. In the same way, he
should prevent his eyes from looking at,
and his ears from listening to, the
forbidden things. He should, instead,
use his eyes to see such things as those
which, for example, will give a
spiritual lesson or moral warning; and
use his ears to listen to the Quran
and truths. When the stomach, which is
like a big factory in the body, is
stopped from working, the other members,
which may be likened to very small
workshops in comparison with the
stomach, can, in fact, easily be made to
follow it.
One
of the purposes of fasting related to
man’s individual life is as follows:
Fasting
is a diet from the viewpoint of both the
physical and spiritual health of man. If
the carnal self acts in eating and
drinking in whatever way it wishes, this
is harmful to man’s physical health,
as well as being a poison for his
spiritual life because of the absence of
discrimination between what is lawful
and unlawful. It becomes very difficult
for such a carnal self to obey the heart
and spirit. Without recognizing any
principles, it takes the reins of man
and drives him in whatever direction it
desires. But, in Ramadan it gets
accustomed to dieting through the fast
and, in self-discipline, it is trained
to learn to obey orders. Further, it
does not cause the poor stomach to
suffer illness because of over-eating
without enough time allowed for proper
digestion. In addition, since it has
learned to forsake eating even what is
lawful, it gains the ability to follow
the decree of reason and religion to
refrain from the unlawful. Thus, the
carnal self tries not to corrupt the
spiritual life of its owner.
Also,
the great majority of mankind frequently
become subject to hunger. In order to
endure a long-lasting hunger with
patience, people should train themselves
in self-discipline and an austere
lifestyle. Fasting during Ramadan
provides just such a training based on
patience with hunger of fifteen hours,
or even twenty-four hours if the meal
before dawn is missed. This means that
fasting is a cure for the impatience and
want of endurance, which double the
misfortune of mankind.
Many
members of the human body are either in
direct or in indirect service of the
factory of the stomach. If that factory
is not made to stop working in daytime
during a certain month of the year, it
keeps those members busy with itself,
forgetful of the kinds of worship and
sublime duties peculiar to each. It is
for this reason that, since the oldest
times, saints have usually preferred to
get themselves used to an austere
lifestyle for the sake of spiritual and
human perfection. Fasting in Ramadan
reminds us that the members of the body
have not been created only for the
service of the stomach. In Ramadan, many
of those members take pleasure in the
angelic and spiritual pleasures, instead
of the material ones. This is the reason
why in Ramadan, believers receive,
according to the extent of their
spiritual perfection, different degrees
of spiritual pleasures and
enlightenment. The heart, the spirit,
the reason and innermost senses of man
are refined through fasting in Ramadan.
Even if the stomach wails during
fasting, these senses rejoice greatly.
Fasting
during Ramadan breaks the illusory
lordship of the carnal self
Fasting
during Ramadan breaks the illusory
lordship of the carnal self and,
reminding it of its innate helplessness,
convinces it that it is a servant.
The
carnal self does not like to recognize
its Lord, and claims lordship in great
obstinacy. However much it is made to
suffer, it preserves that temperament.
It is only hunger which can alter that
temperament. Fasting during Ramadan
breaks the obstinacy of the carnal self
and, by showing to it its intrinsic
helplessness and poverty, reminds it
that it is only a servant.
It
is related from God’s Messenger that
God Almighty asked the carnal self: ‘Who
am I and who are you?’ The carnal self
replied: ‘You are Yourself, and I am
myself.’ However much God tormented it
and asked the same question, He received
the same answer: ‘You are Yourself,
and I am myself.’ At last, God
subjected it to hunger, and when asking
the same question, the reply came: ‘You
are my All-Compassionate Lord; I am Your
helpless servant’.
O
God, grant peace and blessings to
our master Muhammad in a way to
please You and to give him his due,
to the number of the rewards for
reciting the letters of the Quran
in the month of Ramadan, and to his
family and Companions.
Glorified
be your Lord, the Lord of Honor and Power; exalted above
what they falsely ascribe to Him! And peace be upon the
Messengers! And all praise be to God, the Lord of the
Worlds. Amen!
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