FASTING AND THE QURAN

divine light!” He cries out, ‘Make me among those who are near you!’ When he reads about Hell and Paradise, his inner self cries out, “O Lord, save me from Hell, and let me enter Paradise.” In this way the Quran becomes a guiding force in man’s life. He earns his livelihood according to its dictates. He bathes in the ocean of the Quran's purifying message to cleanse his soul. The Quran is a reward to His servants from God. And fasting is acknowledgment of the reward. Through fasting man makes himself worthy of being thankful to God. He obeys the command of God and thus revels in the supremacy of God. Having gone through a month’s fasting, he creates an ability in himself to lead a life of piety as ordained in the Quran. Fasting is a special deed. It makes a man kind-hearted and enables him to awaken his finer feelings. He is then able to feel and experience what God desires of a man in this world. Fasting, a form of training to create the capacity in a man to become the most devoted worshipper, makes him most grateful to God and creates a fear of Him which makes him shiver. The very hardship of fasting carries a man from the material world to the plane of spirituality. o Returning good for evil is the path to success. It means countering anger with forgiveness, provocation with silence, war with negotiation and hatred with love.