Spiritual delights of fasting Ramadhan (5)

Today on the 5th day of the blessed month of Ramadhan, we start our daily programme titled “Spiritual Delights of Fasting Ramadhan” with the special supplication for the day:

“O Allah, place me this day among those who plead for Your forgiveness; place me therein among Your righteous and obedient servants; and place me therein among Your close friends, with Your compassion O Most Merciful of the merciful!”

Fasting is prescribed for all healthy grown-up Muslims, irrespective of their social status, and whether they are rich or poor. In other words, this individual form of worship is a social practice, since it involves the whole society. If the poor learn endurance, patience, and self-dignity, the rich taste the pains of hunger, and they thus become aware of the sufferings of the deprived and have-nots of the society. This would instill in them the sense of generosity and philanthropy for the betterment of the society. In other words, fasting prevents Muslims from being arrogant and proud, since pride and arrogance are satanic traits, as the holy Qur’an says in ayah 34 of Surah Baqara:

"And when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam,’ they prostrated, but not Iblis: he refused and acted arrogantly, and he was one of the faithless."

In ayah 37 of Surah Isra, God warns us of behaving in an arrogant manner, even while walking.

"Do not walk exultantly on the earth. Indeed you will neither pierce the earth, nor reach the mountains in height." 

In the days of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), once a poor man entered his assembly and sat beside a rich man, who with an expression of aversion changed his sitting position in order to create a gap between himself and the deprived person. The Prophet noticed this, and asked the rich man: Do you fear you will be stricken by his poverty?

No O Messenger of God, he said.

The Prophet said: Do you fear that part of your wealth might go to the poor man? Do you fear that your clothes might become dirty by sitting close to him? Then what made you shove yourself aside when he sat beside you?

The rich man gave negative replies to the Prophet’s queries, and finally broke his pride by saying: I admit that I made a mistake and in order to compensate my mistake I am prepared to give half of my wealth to my poor Muslim brother. At this, the poor man gave a wise reply, saying: No, I do not accept your offer, for I fear that by acquiring some of your health, I might lose my dignity and behave with my Muslim brothers, in the same arrogant manner that you behaved with me.

Among the Munajaat or “Whispered Supplications” taught to us by the Prophet’s 4^th Infallible Heir, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), is the one titled “The Prayer of the Complainers.” This is not related to material and worldly affairs, but it is about hurdles that we face while striving towards perfection the way of God. A passage from this supplication reads:

"My God, to You I complain of a soul commanding to evil, rushing to offenses, eager to disobey You, and exposing itself to Your anger. It takes me on the roads of disasters, it makes me the easiest of perishers… it hurries me to misdeeds and makes me delay repentance."

When we ponder on these words of the 4^th Imam taught to us, it becomes obvious that we are exposed to many dangers and might damage our delicate soul, if we do not exercise patience and precaution. For instance, in Surah Yusuf, ayah 53 of the holy Qu’ran, God quotes Prophet Joseph as saying:

"Yet I do not absolve my [own carnal] soul, for the [carnal] soul indeed prompts [men] to evil, except inasmuch as my Lord has mercy. Indeed my Lord is all-forgiving, all-merciful."

The soul which has become known as the rebellious ego, forces many of us, at the slight negligence, to commit sins and offenses, while preventing us from striving towards sublime manners and perfection. Moreover, the rebellious ego tries to justify wrongdoing by belittling the evilness of sins in the eyes of the wrongdoer. It is this rebellious ego that makes human beings to backbite and justify this evil practice. It forces many of us to utter lies, without making us regret of this evil deed. Undoubtedly justifying the sin is more evil than the sin itself. If a sinner realizes the evilness of sin, he/she would repent and seek forgiveness, but when the sin is justified, its evilness remains concealed, the way of repentance gets closed, and the wrongdoer acquires the habit of repeating such evil that gradually distance him/her from God.

Thus, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) in the “Whispered Prayer of the Complainers” that he has taught us, defines the weakness of the soul and how to overcome it by seeking the Grace of God in order ward off satanic temptations. A part of this supplication reads:

My God, there is no force and no strength except in Your power, and no deliverance for me from the detested things of this world save through Your preservation. So I ask You by Your far-reaching wisdom and Your penetrating will not to let me expose myself to other than Your munificence and not to turn me into a target for trials!  Be for me a helper against enemies, a coverer of shameful things and faults, a protector against afflictions, a preserver against acts of disobedience!

By Your clemency and mercy, O Most Merciful of the merciful!

AS/SS