Ramadan Special: The Felicitations of Fasting Asif Naqshbandi O who believe, fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you; perchance you will guard yourselves. ... The month of Ramadan is the month in which the Koran was sent down, a guidance for the people, and clear verses of guidance and criterion. [Quran: Chapter 2, 183] Since Ramadan is once again upon us with all its blessings I thought that it would be fitting to pen a short article for Chowk about the blessings of this holiest of all the months. As the above verse from the Qur'an (and numerous hadiths of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam)) attests, fasting during Ramadan is a personal obligation (fard ‘ayn) on every adult Muslim –male and female who is settled (muqeem: i.e. not travelling). Fasting is one of the pillars of Islam. To deny its obligatory nature is kufr and takes one out of the pale of Islam and not to fast (without a valid reason-see below) is an enormity according to the dictates of the Sacred Law (shar'iah) punishable by hellfire-may Allah forgive us. However the following groups of people are not obligated to fast: 1. A traveller (musaafir) where such a person is defined as one who is travelling for 3 days or more or who travels more than 51 miles according to the Hanafi school which is followed in the Subcontinent and by a majority of the world's Muslims. 2. A very sick person for whom it is feared fasting could cause him/her to become worse or even die. 3. A pregnant woman. 4. Women who are breast-feeding their children. 5. Women who are menstruating or who have just given birth. The details of the fiqh of fasting are discussed in more detail at the following site http://www.raza.co.za/Fiqh/Fiqh_Saum-Basics.htm and need not be repeated here. The aim of this article however is to highlight the spiritual aspects of fasting as explained and discussed by the great awliya (saints) of Islam. Thus for example, Imam Abu Hamid al Ghazzali, the veritable Proof of Islam, states that there are three degrees of fasting: 1. The fast of the ordinary person. 2. The fast of the select few. 3. The fast of the elite. The fast of the ordinary person has already been described, i.e. the abstinence of appetite, sexual intercourse, noise, arguing etc [from dawn to dusk]. The fast of the select few is that of keeping the ears, eyes, tongue, hands, feet together with all the other senses free from sin. The fast of the elite is the fast of the heart from bad thoughts, worldly worries and anything else that may divert from anything but thoughts of Allah (al-Ghazzali, Ihya Ulum al-Din, The Inward Conditions of Fasting online at http://sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/ramadan2.html). One of the greatest Sufis of the last century Hazrat Pir Sayyid Jama'at Ali Shah Naqshbandi (d.1951), of Alipur Sharif, says the following about Ramadan in his Malfuzat: • Those who fast have two felicities: The first when they break their fast at the time of iftari—this is not due to the fact that after remaining hungry all day one gets some food but because of the realisation that one has fulfilled an obligation (fard) which Allah has placed on one. The second shall be the Vision of Allah. • The Vision of Allah will only be for those who fasted; those who did not fast shall not obtain it. • There is a gate in Paradise called Riyân and those who used to fast shall enter into Paradise through that gate. • During Ramadan one should not eat in front of those who are fasting. • Eid is in reality for those who fasted and not for those who did not fast. What right do those who do not fast have of going to the eidgah to celebrate eid? • Once, a few years earlier, I became extremely ill and did not have the strength to walk about nor even to sit up. Ramadan was approaching and I was scared about whether I would be able to fast or not. Still, I made the effort after seeing the moon of Ramadan and kept a fast. By the end of the last fast my strength was much greater than it was after my first fast! (Malfuzat e Amir e Millat, p.30, Maktaba Faridi, Urdu College, Karachi, n.d. Translated by Asif J Naqshband-Jama'ati) Shaykh Muhyuddin Ibn ‘Arabi, the Shaykh al Akbar [Greatest Shaykh] and the standard-bearer of the Ahlus Sunnah and the lovers of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) quotes the following hadith qudsi about fasting and then comments on it in his monumental magnum opus, The Meccan Revelations: "Muslim transmitted in the Sahih that Abu Hurayra reported from the Messenger of Allah that Allah said, "Every action of the son of Adam belongs to him except the fast. It is Mine, and I repay him for it. Fasting is a protection. When one of you has a day of fasting, he should then speak neither obscenely nor too loudly; and if someone seeks to curse him or fight with him, let him say, `I am fasting.` By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the smell of the mouth of the one who fasts is more delectable to Allah than the scent of musk. The one who fasts has two joys in which to delight: when he breaks his fast, he rejoices; and when he meets his Lord, he rejoices in his fast." (Muslim: 13:163) The Shaykh's commentary is extremely complex and delicate and esoteric aimed as it is at fellow Sufis (not Sufi aspirants or common Muslims) but his commentary on the last part of the above hadith is given below: "Then he swore, "By the One who holds the soul of MUhammad in His hand, the changed breath of the faster..." This is the changed smell of the mouth of the faster which only exists by respiration. He respires these good words by which he is commanded. These words are: "I am fasting." These words and every breath of the faster is "more delectable on the Day of Rising," the day when people are resurrected for the Lord of the worlds, "with Allah." He used the name which joins all of their names and he used the name which has no like since only Allah is named by this name. It is in harmony with fasting which has no like. He said, "more delectable than the scent of musk." The scent of musk is an existential matter which is perceived by smell. The person who has a balanced constitution enjoys it. The scent of changed breath is considered more fragrant with Allah than that, because the ascription of the perception of scents to Allah does not resemble the perception of scents to the smeller. We find it unpleasant, while with Him this breath is more sublime than the scent of musk. It is a described ruh which has no like as He described it. This scent is not like that scent. The scent of the faster comes from respiration. The scent of musk does not come from the respiration of musk. Something like of this happened to me [ie. Shaykh Ibn Arabi]. I was with Musa ibn Muhammad al-Qabbab at the minaret in the Haram of Makka at the Hazawwara door. The adhan was being given. He had some food which had a very offensive smell to everyone who smelled it. I had heard in Prophetic tradition that the angels take offence at that to which the children of Adam take offence and that it is forbidden to go near the mosques with the smell of garlic, onions and leeks. I spent the night resolved to tell that man to remove that food from the mosque for the sake of the angels. Then I saw Allah Almighty in a dream in which He told me, "Do not tell him about that food. Its smell with Me is not like its smell with you." In the morning, he came to us as he usually did and I told him what had transpired. He wept and prostrated to Allah out of thankfulness. Then he told me, "My master, in spite of this, adab with the Shari`a is better," and he removed it from the mosque, may Allah have mercy on him.” (On the Secrets of Fasting, Ibn `Arabi translated by Aisha Bewley Selected from al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya online at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/fut71a.html). Thus we know the tremendous worth of the one who fasts with Allah! Finally, I conclude by presenting a poem on fasting by the great Sufi Mawlana Rumi who said: The month of fasting has come, the emperor's banner has arrived, withhold your hand from food, the spirit's table has arrived. The soul has escaped from separation and bound nature's hands; the heart of error is defeated, the army of faith has The army of the snorting chargers has put its hand to plunder, from the fire of the strikers of fire the soul is brought to lamentation. The Cow was goodly, Moses son of Imran appeared; through him the dead became living when it was sacrificed. Fasting is as our sacrifice, it is the life of out soul; let us sacrifice all our body, since the soul has arrived as guest. fortitude is as a sweet cloud, wisdom rains from it, because it was in such a month of fortitude that the Koran arrived. When the carnal soul is in need, the spirit goes into ascension; when the gate of the prison is broken, the soul reaches the Beloved. The heart has rent the curtain of darkness and winged up to the sky; the heart, being of the angels, has again arrived. Quickly clutch the rope out of this body's well; at the top of the well of water cry, "Joseph of Canaan has arrived." When Jesus escaped from the donkey his prayers became accepted; wash your hands, for the Table has arrived from heaven. Wash your hands and your mouth, neither eat nor speak; seek that speech and that morsel which has come to the silent ones. (A poem in time of Ramadan. Rumi`s Ghazal No. 892 from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, translated by A.J. Arberry, "Mystical Poems of Rumi," 1968.) May Allah allow us all to benefit from this sacred month and accept our fasting for His sake! Ameen. Ramadan Mubarak to all! All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and peace and blessings be upon Our Master and Leige-lord Sayyidina Muhammad al Mustafa, the Chosen One and the Beloved of Allah and His Messenger and Perfect Servant!