Fasting by Mohammad Amin Sheikho - HTML preview

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The reality and Wisdom of Fasting

Oh Human, the Almighty has granted you a qualification to be elevated and to ascend to the highest degree of perfection; and all what you need to achieve this great rank for which you are nominated is only to think.

This is true, the Almighty has supplied you with a perfect machine and a precious jewel; if you take advantage of it you will have your heart’s eye open.

Your spirit will observe realities and, therefore, will no more incline to this mean world and the corruptive attractions it contains which are to be followed by shame and humiliation.

If human ponders on their origin, they will realize that they are nothingness; then if they contemplate their growth and how they, along with all that is around them in this universe, are provided with all their needs they will sense the greatness of their Provider.

This contemplation will ultimately lead them to perceive their fate and certain departure from this world. They will come to know for certain that this world is not a place of abiding residence.

There and then, they will seriously seek to recognize the truth. Once a human becomes true in their search for the truth, the Almighty will surely reveal it to them.

To gain access to sublimity and eminence is not a difficult thing; all what you need is only to faithfully join to the school of purity and follow this guidance with a firm and true will.

Once you do this, you will come to see realities. You will find this path so easy, and so, you will mount up the tops of supreme knowledge and ascend the orbits of the highest standing. You will attain the blessings of perfection and wear garments of companionability.

But if your spirit gets lost in its childish whim so that you set to crave after this and that of the fleeting pleasures of this world and its vanities, neglecting to attain sublimity by following these rules, you will be fond of nothing other than vice.

Oh people, know that the deeds you perform in this world will justly be returned upon you tomorrow. Those who have neglected their thought and have refused to follow what is right and true are practising low deeds, but their distance from the Creator of the heavens will cause them to fall in valleys of misery, which are lower than their deeds. They are proceeding towards this fate in a hurry, persisting on such horrible situation until the advent of the hour of death. At that moment, their eyes will be fixed in terror forever.

The reason for the dreadful degradation of humanity which we touch in all human communities and the secret behind these calamities, troubles, famines, earthquakes, diseases, and other afflictions which we see nowadays is that humankind have become proud of what they have attained of worldly science and high prestige.

This can be noticed clearer in the fields of worldly inventions and achievements. They spend their times in amusement and play and depravity, turning their back to the truth.

They did not see what this lofty and supreme revelation and guidelines, adorned with truth and perfection, speaks of sound logic. Rather, they found it strange to hear it!

But what is the point of oddity in this? Did the Almighty Allah not send Envoys to every nation?

So, why do they not compare their achievements with his (cpth)[1] achievements?

Did they not realize his (cpth) perfection?

Do they not know that on Doomsday everybody will seek to save only himself?

With regard to fasting, a human cannot attain the fruit of fasting unless all their deed, with no exception, are good.

In reality, the human spirit is free in its choice and will. The Almighty granted it unrestricted freedom. Therefore, a human cannot drive their spirit by force; they can lead it by proof and logic argument. Once you convince your spirit, it will follow you and agree with you. So, if you render good deeds and mend your ways, it will draw close to Almighty Allah, the Source of all blessings and the Origin of all excellent qualities from Whom it absorbs perfect attributes. This is sure to happen on condition that you commit no wrong, for one infringement will break your fast and make your spirit unable to approach His Majesty. This is because it will lose its confidence and become diffident form its Provider.

Today, many people fast formally, that is to say, they abstain from eating and drinking, meanwhile, they do not perform the daily prayers. Others may make the pilgrimage, however, they practice usury, thus such people believe only in what is consistent with their whim and reject all that is inconsistent with their desire.

Andalusia, for example, was a great Islamic state, yet it vanished because the Muslim rulers used to seek the help of the non-Muslims against each other. This is the same act of the Jews, the people of the book (Al-Torah), who resorted to the pagon Arabs to aid them against each other.

Not so is the believer, for they believe in all God’s Words. They do not follow what appeals to them and neglect what does not satisfy their pleasures. Rather they strive against the inclinations of spirit and its whim.

Whoever adopts this conduct, that is to say, whoever believes in a part of the Book and rejects other parts will face the same miserable end as they have recognized the truth yet they do not follow it. Then a horrible destination awaits them in the life to come when they find themselves bare of any good deed, fitting for meeting the Almighty Allah, a deed that is completely void of any worldly benefit related to people’s honor or wealth. At this, and since they will have regained their perfect disposition and there will be no more pleasures and lusts, they will flame with contrition. They will find no treatment nor sedative for their spiritual suffering to cling to other than the Fire. What a miserable treatment and a bad association!

Conversely, when the spirit turns towards the Almighty Allah, driven by its confidence of its good deeds, which are free from any mean purposes, it will derive perfection and become graced with it.

This produces in it a love for the people of perfection and a feeling of reverence for them, and as a result, it will keep in company with them. This companionship with the people of perfection leads the loving spirit to enter with them into the Godly Presence where it gets immersed in the oceans of the Godly Majesty and beauty.

In this way, a spirit grows in capacity and abilities, provided with pure and noble Godly love and thus it rids itself of all base pleasures and spiritual purposes. Such a spirit will aspire to be repaid for its charity from its Originator, the Creator of all blessings, and not from His creatures.

There and then, it will become illuminated by His Light (Glory to Him) and become able to distinguish between what is good and what is evil. God says: “Enter into My servants, and enter My Paradise”

The Holy Qur’an,

Fortress 89 [2], al-Fajr (The Coming Appearance), verses 29-30

This is the fruit of fasting as referred to in the holy saying when God says, “All deeds of sons of Adam are done for himself, except fasting, it is done for me, and therefore, it is Me who gives the reward of it”[3]

By fasting, the believer gains the “Night of Valuation” after which the spirit of the faster abstains from all forbidden things, furthermore, it loathes them by virtue of the Godly Light it has derived in this blessed nigh and which shows it what they contain of evils.

Thus, the faster will acquire the noblest traits of character, and this acquirement is accessible for every believer.

After the believer gains this degree, they should be careful not to turn away from the Almighty in order to perform a perfect and correct communication with Him.

This is because true faith and fast protect the believer from falling in sin and instill confidence in themselves that makes them approach the Almighty and perform a right communication with Him through which the Almighty obliges them with a heart purification. In this way, the spirit will be cleaned of all its imperfections and the faster will become pure and rarefied as when he was a newborn child.

Having become so, the believer then will spare no effect in achieving reformation, doing favor and rendering good deeds. This is because they have become a true human being in the full sublime sense of humanity. They have enjoyed the company of God, the Source of all-good, and so they have attained good and flooded it over people, seeking no reward from them nor any worldly purpose. Therefore, the creation will like their company.

This is the purpose for which we were created; it is to be a human being that can enjoy happiness and help others enjoy it. Thus, we can live in Paradise on this land, and thus peace, Humane and honest love, and life of plenty and pleasure will spread.

This is the goal of the Most Merciful God, the Provider of all the worlds. He is not a Provider for some nations without others, and He is not only our Provider, Rather He is the Provider of all the worlds, Who want all His creation to enjoy happiness. He wishes them to attain worldly happiness and then eternal afterworldly happiness, a great felicity that is obtained and then prevailed only by the fasting believer.

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