Ramadan Mubarak!
{ يٰأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ }
“O you who believe, prescribed for you, obligatory [for you], is the Fast, just as it was prescribed for those, communities, that were before you so that you might guard yourselves, against acts of disobedience, for, it [the fast] curbs the desires that prompt these [acts].” The Holy Qur’an 2:183
Ramadan mubarak to all of our brothers and sisters from all of us at Semazen.net. May our fasting and prayers during this holy month be pleasing to Allah. May He (SWT) give us all the strength to make the most of this blessed month. AMEEN
This (ritual) prayer and fasting and pilgrimage and holy war are the attestation of the (inward) belief.
The giving of alms and presents and the abandonment of envy are the attestation of one's secret thoughts.
185. Dishes of food and hospitality are for the purpose of declaring that “we, O noble (guests), have become in true accord with you.”
Gifts and presents and offerings bear witness (saying implicitly), “I am pleased with thee.”
(If) any one exerts himself in (giving) money or in conjuration, what is (the meaning of) it? (He means to say), “I have a jewel within.
I have a jewel, namely, abstinence or generosity”: this alms-giving and fasting are witnesses in regard to both (these qualities).
Fasting says (implicitly), “He has abstained from what is lawful: know (therefore) that he has no connexion with what is unlawful”;
190. And his alms-giving said (implicitly), “He gives of his own property: how, then, should he steal from the religious?”
If he act as a cutpurse (from self-interest), then the two witnesses are invalidated in the court of Divine justice.
He is a fowler if he scatter grain not from mercy and munificence but in order to catch (the birds).
He is a cat keeping the fast and feigning to be asleep at fast-time for the purpose of (seizing) his ignorant prey.
By this unrighteousness he makes a hundred parties (of people) suspicious, he causes the generous and abstinent to be in ill repute.
195. (But) notwithstanding that he weaves crookedly, in the end the grace of God will purge him of all this (hypocrisy).
His (God's) mercy takes precedence (over His wrath) and bestows on that treachery (hypocrisy) a light that the full-moon does not possess.
God cleanses his effort of this contamination: the (Divine) Mercy washes him clean of this folly.
In order that His great forgivingness may be made manifest, a helmet (of forgiveness) will cover his (the hypocrite's) baldness.
The water rained from heaven, that it might cleanse the impure of their defilement.
Mathnawi V
Ramadan and Fasting According to Hz. Mevlânâ
A study of the Mathnawí and Divan-i Kebîr of Hz. Mevlânâ reveals to us the opinions of Hz. Mevlânâ regarding the month of Ramadan and fasting:
“The passion towards fasting is very unique” says Hz. Mevlânâ. He mentions how much he misses fasting and how strong he feels the absence of fasting. Sometimes he regards fasting as a “Mother”.
Ramadan, the month of fasting, should be welcomed with joy and we should be thankful and appreciative to Allah.
Fasting reveals the faith of a person, the love towards Allah, the devotion to Allah, the forbearance for Allah’s sake, the abstention from the things forbidden by Allah.
During the month of Ramadan, it is necessary to abstain not only from eating and drinking, but also from speaking bad words or doing bad deeds…we have to exercise patience against bad things.
It is not easy to fast but it helps you to develop an aptitude for many difficulties. Fasting makes the ego (nefs) and Shaitan (The devil) feeble and frail, purifies the physical and spiritual body, frees gönül (the spiritual heart) from worldly affairs, sets the soul free, sharpens the spiritual eye, teaches patience, teaches ways to escape illnesses, matures people, increases spiritual food, makes people become closer to Allah.
Explaining that (ritual) prayer and fasting and all (such) external things are witnesses to the inner light.
This (ritual) prayer and fasting and pilgrimage and holy war are the attestation of the (inward) belief.
The giving of alms and presents and the abandonment of envy are the attestation of one's secret thoughts.
185. Dishes of food and hospitality are for the purpose of declaring that “we, O noble (guests), have become in true accord with you.”
Gifts and presents and offerings bear witness (saying implicitly), “I am pleased with thee.”
(If) any one exerts himself in (giving) money or in conjuration, what is (the meaning of) it? (He means to say), “I have a jewel within.
I have a jewel, namely, abstinence or generosity”: this alms-giving and fasting are witnesses in regard to both (these qualities).
Fasting says (implicitly), “He has abstained from what is lawful: know (therefore) that he has no connexion with what is unlawful”;
190. And his alms-giving said (implicitly), “He gives of his own property: how, then, should he steal from the religious?”
If he act as a cutpurse (from self-interest), then the two witnesses are invalidated in the court of Divine justice.
He is a fowler if he scatter grain not from mercy and munificence but in order to catch (the birds).
He is a cat keeping the fast and feigning to be asleep at fast-time for the purpose of (seizing) his ignorant prey.
By this unrighteousness he makes a hundred parties (of people) suspicious, he causes the generous and abstinent to be in ill repute.
195. (But) notwithstanding that he weaves crookedly, in the end the grace of God will purge him of all this (hypocrisy).
His (God's) mercy takes precedence (over His wrath) and bestows on that treachery (hypocrisy) a light that the full-moon does not possess.
God cleanses his effort of this contamination: the (Divine) Mercy washes him clean of this folly.
In order that His great forgivingness may be made manifest, a helmet (of forgiveness) will cover his (the hypocrite's) baldness.
The water rained from heaven, that it might cleanse the impure of their defilement. [1]
2625. If love were (only spiritual) thought and reality, the form of your fasting and prayer would be non-existent.
The gifts of lovers to one another are, in respect of love, naught but forms;
(But the purpose is) that the gifts may have borne testimony to feelings of love which are concealed in secrecy,
Because outward acts of kindness bear witness to feelings of love in the heart, O dear friend. [2]
Be patient and persistent in fasting: (be) always expecting the Food of God [3]
If fighting (against the flesh) and fasting are hard and rough, yet these are better than being far From Him who inflicts tribulation. [4]
Celebrate! The month of fasting has come.
Pleasant journey to the one
Who is the company of the fasting.
I climbed the roof to see the Moon,
Because I really missed fasting
By heart and soul.
I lost my hat while looking at the Moon.
the Sultan of fasting made me drunk.
O Muslims, I have been drunk
since that day I lost my mind.
What a beautiful fortune fasting has.
What a wonderful glory.
There is another secret moon
Besides this one.
He is hiding in the tent of fasting
Like a Turk.
Anyone who comes
To the harvest of fasting in this month
Finds the way to this Moon.
Whoever makes his face
Resemble pale satin
Wears the silk clothes of fasting.
Prayers will be accepted in this month.
Sighs of the one fasting pierce the sky.
The person who sits patiently
At the bottom of fasting’s well
Owns the love of Egypt, like Joseph.
O the word which eats the Sahur meal,
Be silent so that anyone
Who knows fasting will enjoy fasting.
Come, O Shems, the brave one
Of whom Tebriz is proud.
You are the commander of fasting’s soldiers. [5]
On the mountain Qaf of fasting even the sparrow becomes the phoenix , the stone turns into a wonderful ruby , during fasting , and this religious practice if a fast horse running swiftly towards the source of life. [6]
If your brain and stomach burn from fasting, their fire will draw constant lamentations from your breast. Through that fire you will burn a thousand veils at every instant. You will ascend a thousand degrees on the way and in your aspiration . . . when you fast, good character traits gather round you like servants, slaves and retinue. [7]
Although faith is built upon five pillars, yet by God the greatest pillars of those is fasting , just as the blessed night of the might is hidden in fasting. [8]
O moon-faced Beloved, the month of Ramadan has arrived. Cover the table and open the path of praise.”
The month of fasting has come, the emperor’s banner has arrived; withhold your hand from food, the spirit’s table has arrived.
The soul has escaped from separation and bound nature’s hands; the heart of error is defeated, the army of faith has arrived.
Fasting is our sacrifice, it is the life of our soul; let us sacrifice all our body, since the soul has arrived as guest.
Fortitude is as a sweet cloud, wisdom rains from it, because it was in such a month of fortitude that the Koran arrived.
...Wash your hands and your mouth, neither eat nor speak; seek that speech and that morsel which has come to the silent ones.”
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[1] Mathnawí V, verses: 183-199
[2] Mathnawí I, verses: 2625-2628
[3] Mathnawí V, verse: 1749
[4] Mathnawí VI, verse: 1769
[5] Rumi’s Ghazal No. 2344 from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, translated by Nevit Ergin (from the Turkish translation of the original Persian by Golpinarli), “Mevlana Celâleddin Rûmi: Divan-i Kebîr,” Volume 18, 2002.
[6] (Rûmi 1959, no.1602)
[7] (ibid., no.1739)
[8] (Schimmel 1980,p.290)
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