Spiritual delights of fasting Ramadhan (14)

Today on the 14th 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, do not take me to task this day for my lapses; pardon me in it my slips and offences; and do not make me the target therein of afflictions and blights; with Your Might, O Might of the Muslims!”

Praised be Allah, among the blessings of the month of Ramadhan is the patience it teaches us. While observing fasts, we endure hunger and thirst, but we never complain, nor are we in haste for the approach of dusk to break the fast. This patience in the blessed month of fasting is in contrast to the needs of the stomach and body that one barely tolerates in other months. However, this is not any justification to be impatient in the rest of the year. Indeed patience is the gift of God Almighty, Who says in the holy Qur’an: Allah is surely with the patient people.

God has made patience like a horse that never gets tired, an army that can never be defeated and a strong fortress that can never be breached. Patience and victory are twin brothers, for victory comes with patience, relief comes with distress and ease comes with hardship. Patience is of more help to the one who has it than many men, as it helps without any need for equipment or numbers and its relationship to victory is like that of the head to the body. In the holy Qur’an, Allah has guaranteed those who are patient that He will give them reward without measure. He tells them that He is with them by guiding and supporting them and granting them a clear victory. In ayah 46 of Surah Anfaal, we read: 

“And obey Allah and His Prophet, and do not dispute, or you will lose heart and your power will be gone. And be patient; indeed Allah is with the patient.”

Allah has made leadership in terms of religion conditional upon patience and certain faith, as He says in ayah 24 of Surah Sajdah:

“And amongst them We appointed Imams to guide [the people] by Our command, when they had been patient and had conviction in Our signs.”

In ayah 126 of Surah Nahl, God says:

“And if you retaliate, retaliate with the like of what you have been made to suffer, but if you are patient that is surely better for the patient.”

Also in ayah 120 of Surah Aal-e Imran we read:

“If some good should befall you, it upsets them, but if some ill should befall you, they rejoice at it. Yet if you are patient and Godwary, their guile will not harm you in any way. Indeed Allah comprehends what they do.”

God means to say that if we are patient and pious, the plot of the enemy cannot do any harm, even if the enemy is powerful. God also informs us that the patience and piety of Prophet Joseph brought him to a position of power and strength, as we read in ayah 18 of Surah Yusuf:

“And they produced sham blood on his shirt. He said, ‘Rather your souls have made a matter seem decorous to you. Yet patience is graceful, and Allah is my resort against what you allege.”

There are numerous ayahs in the holy Qur’an that speak about the virtues of patience and the rewards reserved for the patient by God Almighty. In the month of Ramadhan we thus become more realistic of what patience really means by controlling our natural needs and emotions. There are several hadith from the Prophet of Islam and the Infallible Imams of his household extolling patience. Patience is the foundation of the believer’s faith. The one who has no patience has no faith, and if he has any, then it is only a little faith and it is very weak, and such a person worships Allah as it were upon the edge, i.e. in doubt. For instance, if good befalls him, he is content therewith; but if a trial befalls him he turns back on his face, which means reverts to disbelief after embracing Islam. Thus he loses both this world and the Hereafter. All he gets from them is a losing deal. The best life is attained by the blessed through patience, and they rise to the highest degrees through their gratitude. So they fly on the wings of patience and gratitude to gardens of delight, that is, Paradise. This is indeed the bounty of Allah for the believers.

Here we present you a passage from the Munajaat or the Whispered Supplication of those who observe the fasts of the blessed month of Ramadhan, as taught to us by the Prophet’s 4^th Infallible Heir, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS):

“My God, induce us to renounce it and keep us safe from it by Your giving success and Your preservation from sin. Strip from us the robes of opposing You, attend to our affairs through Your good sufficiency, amplify our increase from the boundless plenty of Your mercy, be liberal in our gifts from the overflow of Your grants, plant in our hearts the trees of Your love, complete for us the lights of Your knowledge, give us to taste the sweetness of Your pardon and the pleasure of Your forgiveness, gladden our eyes on the day of meeting You… dislodge the love of this world from our spirits, just as You have done for the righteous, Your selected friends, and for the pious, those whom You have singled out! O Most Merciful of the merciful, O Most Generous of the most generous!”

AS/ME