Fasting

When a person has elevated himself from the world, God endows him with wisdom, which emanates from his lips. He is shown the ills of the world, and their remedies. He is brought safely to the abode of peace. (Mishkat) There comes a point on this path when one passes so far beyond the veil of matter that one can see realities exactly as they are. Then one “worships God, as if one were seeing Him.” (Bukhari) A common man can also elevate his soul to this degree. Prophethood, however, is the final stage of this path. The difference is that a prophet is one chosen by God. There is no obscurity in his vision of the divine world; it appears before him in absolute, certain form; it actually becomes a part of his consciousness. The prophet is thus in a position to say: “I know that I know.” While a common man can never reach this stage, because he is not ‘chosen.’ Unlike the prophets, his contact with the divine world is neither absolute nor conscious. Of the verses of the Quran prescribing the fast of Ramadan, there is one which does not apparently seem to deal with fasting, but it is in this verse that the significance of fasting has been explained: And when My servants question you concerning Me, tell them that I am near. I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls upon me. (Quran 2:186) The prophets, because of their being chosen, are in direct contact with God through angels. For others, the Quran takes the place of the angel Gabriel. By fasting and abstinence, the prophets cleansed and purified their souls or minds of all material stain, thus detaching themselves inwardly from the world. It was then that God’s angel descended to them and directly communicated to them the word of God. Others who hope to attain God through the Quran must also engage in fasting and abstinence in order to understand what they read. Although the Quran is with us today, preserved in written form as it was revealed, it enters one’s heart only when one is spiritually prepared to receive it by living a life of fasting and devotion.