Seventh point:

 

Seventh point: Fasting during Ramadan has many purposes related to a person’s spiritual rewards, as everyone is sent here to sow this world with the seeds of the next life. The following paragraphs explain one such purpose, as follows:

The rewards for good deeds done during Ramadan are multiplied by a thousand. One Tradition states that 10 rewards are given for each letter of the Qur’an. Reciting one letter means 10 good deeds, and brings forth 10 fruits of Paradise. But during Ramadan, this reward is multiplied by 1,000, and even more for such verses as the “Verse of the Throne.” 1 The reward is even greater on Ramadan’s Friday nights. Furthermore, each letter is multiplied 30,000 times if recited during the Night of Power (the night when the Qur’anic revelation started). During Ramadan the Qur’an, each letter of which yields 30,000 permanent fruits of Paradise, becomes like a huge blessed tree producing millions of permanent fruits of Paradise. Consider how holy and profitable this trade is, and how great a loss for those who do not appreciate the Qur’an’s letters.

So Ramadan is the most proper time for such a profitable trade in the name of the afterlife. It is like a most fertile field to cultivate for the harvest of the afterlife. Its multiplication of rewards for good deeds make it like April in spring. It is a sacred, illustrious festival for the parade of those who worship His Lordship’s Sovereignty.

This is why fasting Ramadan is obligatory, why believers are not allowed to gratify the carnal self’s animal appetites and indulge in its useless fancies. Since they become like angels while fasting or engaging in such a trade, each believer is a mirror reflecting God’s Self Sufficiency. They move toward becoming a pure spirit manifested in corporeal dress by abandoning the world for a fixed period. In fact, Ramadan contains and causes believers to gain, through fasting, a permanent life after a short period in this world.

One Ramadan may enable believers to gain 80 years’ worth of reward, for the Qur’an declares the Night of Power to be more profitable than 80 years having no such night (97:3). A king may announce a few holidays to mark a special occasion like his enthronement, and then honor his faithful subjects on those days with special favors. Likewise, the Eternal, Majestic King of the 18,000 worlds revealed the Qur’an, His exalted decree, to each world during Ramadan. Thus wisdom requires that Ramadan be a special Divine festival during which God’s Lordship pours out bounties and spirit beings come together. Given that Ramadan is a Divinely ordained festival, fasting is commanded so that people withdraw from their bodily preoccupations to some extent.

Fasting also enables people to abandon sins committed by the bodily senses or members and use them in the acts of worship particular to each. For example, those who fast should stop their tongue from lying, backbiting, and swearing and busy it with reciting the Qur’an, glorifying God, seeking His forgiveness, and calling His blessing upon Prophet Muhammad. They should prevent their eyes from looking at, and their ears from listening to, forbidden things; rather, they should look at things that give a spiritual lesson or moral warning, and listen to the Qur’an and truths. When the factory like stomach is stopped from working, other members (small workshops) can be made to follow it easily.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

1 God! There is no god but He, the Living, Self-Subsisting, Supporter of all. Slumber and sleep do not seize him. Everything in the heavens and on the Earth belongs to Him. Who can intercede in His presence unless He permits it? He knows what (appears) before and after and behind His creatures, and they can only acquire as much of His knowledge as he permits. His Throne extends over the heavens and the Earth. He feels no fatigue while guarding and preserving them, for He is the Most High, the Supreme. (2:255)