On Fasting
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
In the All Embracing Compassion and Love of the Only Reality
Beloved Dervishes,
May our Beloved Lord and Lover increase us always in boundless blessing!
...
If we tried to enumerate all the blessings of the fast we would not be able to do so. That is why Allah says through the Generous Koran that “fasting is better for you, if you only knew.” It is better even than feeding the hungry – which is the act divinely ordained as a compensation for not being able to fast.
To mention a few of the magnificent bestowals given through the fast:
Fasting increases the experience of our true humanity, the power of spiritual divinity and the power of divine earthliness.
Fasting reveals the beauty of true servanthood. We serve by revealing the Beloved. We serve by being the cups in which the beloved pours HisHer Own Love and Bliss and Desire. Everything we are is the Essence praising and revealing Itself. We are nothing in ourselves. We are only through Allah. May Allah reveal through us the Most Beautiful Attributes and Actions. Fasting unveils this bewildering reality.
Fasting increases gratitude. Allah declares in the Generous Koran that gratitude is like zikrullah, so when we are grateful we are in a state of zikrullah.
Fasting bestows joy and safety and well-being.
Fasting bestows humility and helps us to see our faults. Fasting helps us to fast from our limited self and to feast on the Divine Truth.
Fasting increases us in compassion and tenderness. We take on some of the qualities of Rahman and Rahim. And we always turn to Rahman and Rahim in our being, seeking increase in Divine Mercy and Love.
Fasting brings us to the state of forgiveness, where we forgive everything and we desire for all to be forgiven. Fasting turns our soul often to ask for Allah’s Own healing forgiveness and erasing of all our faults.
Fasting connects us to those who are hungry and suffering. When else do we really feel how they feel? How precious this is!
Fasting helps to reveal the innate clarity of our mind and it fills our soul with light.
Fasting opens the way to increase of knowledge.
Fasting keeps us conscious of Allah. It is the sacred precinct of Allah in which there is spiritual safety and no harm to our self or to others, either in thought, word or deed.
Fasting is continuous worship and continuous zikrullah.
Fasting is nearness to the Beloved.
And finally and essentially for the lovers, by fasting we are complying with our Beloved’s request to us in the Ramadan. We are saying “Yes O Beloved, we hear You and we obey You!”
In love and companionship in the Beloved.
Fariha Fatima