quickly decay and fall apart. Simply, it assaults the world as though it possessed a body made of steel and imagined itself to be undying and eternal. It hurls itself on the world with intense greed and voracity, and passionate attachment and love. It is captivated by anything that gives it pleasure or that profits it. Moreover, it forgets its Creator, who sustains it with perfect compassion, and does not think of the consequences of its life and its life in the hereafter. Indeed, it wallows in dissipation and misconduct.
However, fasting in the month of Ramadan awakens even the most heedless and obstinate to their weakness, impotence, and want. Hunger makes them think of their stomachs and they understand the need therein. They realize how unsound are their weak bodies, and perceive how needy they are for kindness and compassion. So they abandon the soul’s pharaoh-like despotism and recognizing their utter impotence and want, perceive a desire to take refuge at the divine court. They prepare themselves to knock at the door of mercy with the hands of thankfulness – so long as heedlessness has not destroyed their hearts, that is.
S i x t h P o i n t
One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan from the point of view of the revelation of the All-Wise Qur’an, and the month of Ramadan being the most important time in its revelation, is as follows:
Since the All-Wise Qur’an was revealed in the month of Ramadan, to shun the lower demands of the soul and trivialities and to resemble the angelic state by abstaining from food and drink in order to greet that heavenly address in the best manner, is to attain to a holy state. And to read and listen to the Qur’an as though it were just revealed, to listen to the divine address in it as if it were being revealed that very instant, to listen to that address as though hearing it from God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), indeed, from the Angel Gabriel, or from the Pre-Eternal Speaker Himself, is to attain to that same holy state. To act in this way is to act as an interpreter and to cause others to listen to it and in some degree to demonstrate the wisdom in the Qur’an’s revelation.
Indeed, it is as if the world of Islam becomes a mosque during the month of Ramadan in every corner of which millions of those who know the whole Qur’an by heart make the dwellers on the earth hear the heavenly address. Each Ramadan proclaims in luminous shining manner the verse “It was the month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was bestowed from on high;” it proves that Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an. Some of the members of the vast congregation listen to the reciters with reverence, while others read it themselves.