Allah says in surah Baqarah, ayat 183: “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.”
The purpose of fasting in this ayat is called a righteousness: laAllakum tattakun – “that you may become righteous.”
In the seventh volume of the “Wasayilu Shia,” it is quoted from Hisham ibn Hakam that he asked Imam Sadiq (A) about the reason for fasting. The Imam said: “Allah made fasting obligatory so that the rich and the poor are made equal. If there were no fasting, the rich would never experience the feeling of hunger that would make them have mercy on the poor, for whenever the rich desire something, they are able to acquire it. Thus God desired to place His servants on the same level, and that the rich experience hunger and pain so that they have compassion for the weak and have mercy on the hungry.”
A hadith from Imam Reza (A), quoted in the same source, says: “The reason for fasting is to know the touch of hunger and thirst so that the slave would be humble, patient, and it would be an indication to him of the hardships of the future world.”
And there is also quoted from Zurara from Imam Sadiq (A) that he said: “Every thing has zakat, and the zakat of the body is fasting.”
That is, there is such a thing as zakat of the body. Today, we understand the word “zakat” in its fiqh meaning as the payment of a certain share from certain kinds of property. But in the language, the word “zakat” originally meant “purification.” That is, Imam Sadiq (A) says that every thing has purification, and purification of the body is fasting.
A hadith from Imam Sadiq (A) in “Misbahu shariah” explains the meaning of this. Imam Sadiq (А) reports that the Messenger of Allah (S) said: “Fasting is a shield against the calamities of the temporary world and a covering against the torments of the future world. If you fast, intend thereby to rid your soul of passions, and separate your deeds from following in the footsteps of shaytan and shaytans, and place your soul in a position of contentment, desiring neither food nor drink, and every moment hope for healing from the diseases of sins, and purify your inwardness from every lie, abomination, ignorance, or oppression that separates you from sincerity in striving for the countenance of Allah the Great.”
Then he said: “And fasting kills the passions of the soul, and in it is a purification of the heart and cleansing of the members of the body and settling the outward and inward, and gratitude for goods, and mercy for the poor, and multiplication of humility, obedience, and weeping, and there is so much benefit in it that it cannot be counted.”
So, these hadiths name several purposes or meanings of fasting. Fasting exists to equalize creation. This is the first sense. The second is to point man to the future world and the Day of Judgment. The third meaning is fasting as a purification of the body (zakat of the body). And all of these meanings are beautiful. Each one conveys one aspect of the essence of fasting. But all of these meanings come together in a hadith from Fatima Zahra (A). Let’s see what she says:
“Allah made faith to be purification for you from polytheism. He made Prayer an exaltation for you from conceit, zakat a purification for the soul, and a (cause of) growth in subsistence. And He made fasting an implantation of sincerity (ikhlas).”
Through fasting, ikhlas is implanted. And if you want your fasting to be zahrai, fatimi, then make it an implantation of your ikhlas.
And what is ikhlas? We’ll get to that in a moment.
Everything we talked about related to the purpose of fasting. And why was the fasting itself instituted during the month of Ramadan? Where does this very establishment come from, and what is its root? This, too, is mentioned in the hadiths of the Infallibles (A).
Shaykh Saduq cites in “Amali” from the commander of the believers:
A Jew asked the Messenger of Allah (S), “Why did your Lord prescribe your Ummah to fast during daylight hours for thirty days?” The Messenger of Allah (S) said: “When Adam ate from the Tree, it remained in his stomach for thirty days, and Allah prescribed hunger and thirst for thirty days for his descendants. And it was the same for Adam, and Allah prescribed my Ummah to fast for thirty days.”
So, the root of fasting goes back to the story of our father Adam (A). And it is clear that this hadith speaks in symbolic language. This is not to be taken literally, that Adam ate something, and it stuck in his stomach for thirty days. It is a symbolic language.
The hadith from Imam Askari (A) says that the Tree from which Adam tasted was the Tree of knowledge, the Tree of Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad (S). Adam longed for the degrees of Ahl ul-Bayt (A) so that he might thereby come nearer to Allah. And Iblis came to him and swore that Allah had permitted him and Eve this Tree and that if he tasted of it, he would receive these degrees. Adam aspired for the position of Ahl ul-Beit (A); he desired to reach those lights shining over the Throne of Allah, but he did not know that he was not capable of getting them, nor did he know that this aspiration of his had certain consequences that would affect him, that is, his exit from the Jannat, from the Barzakh paradise, in which he was situated. He had taken upon himself a task he could not bear; he had made a mistake… The mark of that mistake remained in his body for thirty days, and as a reminder of that, Allah established fasting for thirty days for Adam and his descendants.
That is, fasting during the month of Ramadan is the Shariah cipher for the reality of Adam and his acquiring the khalifat.
In general, it should be said that the basis of all Shariah laws generally goes back to the history of Adam and the Divine khalifat of which Allah said to the angels: “I will make a vicegerent (khalifa) on earth.” This is so with regard to salat, zakat, hajj, and fasting.
For example, about wudu (the partial ablution), it is said that we wash our faces because Adam turned his face and looked at this Tree. Then we wash our hands because Adam touched this Tree with his hands. After that, we wipe our heads because Adam put his hand on his head when he left this Tree, realizing his mistake. And we wipe our feet because Adam walked from this Tree with these feet. This hadith is in Saduq’s “Ilalu Sharayi.”
And so are the rites of Hajj, such as the circumambulation of the Kaaba. The Kaaba is a reflection, a projection, a mazhar from the Beit Mamur (the House inhabited in the heavens), and the Beit Mamur is a reflection from the Throne of Allah, and the Throne is a reflection from the Haqiqat Muhammadiyya, the Light of Ahl al-Bayt. So, we perform salat in the direction of the Reality of Ahl ul-Beit, the center of creation around which all creatures revolve. This is why the Kaaba is made a qibla.
So, all of the actions in the obligatory acts of worship are related to the caliphate program, that is, the relationship of Adam, the Adamic man – and the Reality of Ahl ul-Beit (the Light of Allah’s Wilaya). These are certain symbols that outline this program, being its expressions, tajalliyyat. Such are salat, hajj, zakat, fasting, and so forth…
So, we see that the order of Shariah, the order of taklif, the laws that Allah has prescribed for us – correspond to the order of being itself. Salat, hajj, or fasting are prescribed for a reason; the actions of which they consist are also performed for a reason.
In all this, there is a sign for those who ponder… Look, the Quran constantly speaks of the sun and the moon for a reason. “By the sun and its brightness and the moon when it follows it” (91: 1-2). The sun in the Book of Allah is the symbol of the Seal of Prophets. When the sun disappears, setting over the horizon, which symbolizes the death of the Last Prophet (S), the moon takes its place, which is the symbol of Imamate. There are twelve lunar cycles in a year, as the Quran says: “Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve months in the register of Allah from the day He created the heavens and the earth” (9: 36). The Imams are twelve. And we see that the earthly order is created by Allah so that it reflects the heavenly order. As the sun descends over the horizon, it leaves behind twelve moons. And in the same way: hiding behind the horizon of earthly life, the sun of Prophecy leaves behind the twelve Imams.
Or water… According to the Shariah, only water is the universal purifier of filth (najis). Only water and nothing else. Water is pure in itself and the purifier for all other materials and media. And it cleanses itself. That is, the essence of water is purity. “And We send down from the sky pure water” (25: 48). This earthly water is nothing but tajaliyyat, the expression, the manifestation of the first water, the water of Wilaya, of which Allah said: “And His Throne had been upon water” (11: 7). “Have they not seen that We drive the water to barren land?” (32: 27) – that is, We drive the water of existence from the Mashiyyah of Allah through the medium of Ahl ul-Bayt. And this is the water of Wilaya, or the first light, or the being of all things, from whose rays all things exist.
And here, in parentheses, I note that modern research has found that water is more than an inanimate substance: it has a semblance of consciousness. It is capable of remembering information and reacting to it. From the Islamic point of view, this is understandable because our earthly water is a symbol of that water which is the basis of being and the light of Wilaya.
So, once again: for every thing, there is a likeness in Allah’s creation. For what we see here below, there is a likeness above and vice versa.
And so the commander of the believers Ali (A) says: Ana salaatu l-muminin wa siyamuhum – “I am the prayer of believers and their fasting.” The Imam is the prayer, and he is the fasting.
And in another hadith, he says: “I am the Frequented House, I am the Lofty Dome, I am the month of Ramadan, I am the Night of Decree, I am the Mother of the book, I am the final decision, I am surah ‘The Hamd,’ and I am the owner of the prayer.”
What does it mean that the commander of the believers (A) is the month of Ramadan, the night of qadr, salat, and fasting? It means that all of these are manifestations of his reality, the rays from rays of his light. The inner reality of fasting and all other types of worship is Wilaya. He who understands this will understand the inner meaning of the worship of Allah.
Imam Sadiq (A) says: “We are the prayer in the Book of Allah, and we are zakat, and we are fasting, we are hajj, we are Kaaba, we are the qibla of Allah, we are the face of Allah.” And then he said: “And our enemies in the Book of Allah are the abomination and the reprehensible, tyranny and wine and gambling and idols and Jibt and Taghut, carrion and blood and pig meat.”
And he said in another hadith: “We are the foundation of all good, and all good comes from our branches…” – and then he lists the kinds of these goods – Tawheed, prayer, fasting… And he says, “And our enemies are the foundation of all evil, and all evil is from their branches.”
And from here, we understand the meaning of the words of Fatima Zahra (A): wa ssiyama tasbitan lil ikhlas – “And He made fasting an implantation of ikhlas (sincerity).” Fasting has three levels, corresponding to the three levels of man. The man is composed of three levels: body, soul, and spirit. And so, on the first level, fasting is the zakat of the body, as we saw in one of the hadiths. It is the experience of our body’s thirst and hunger in order to strengthen it on the path of submission to Allah and remind it of the suffering of the Day of Judgment.
The second level is the struggle against the passions, the purification of the soul from all sinful and abominable things, from all suggestions of the nafs ammara, “the soul that calls to evil.”
And finally, the third and highest level is the level of knowledge of Wilaya, the struggle of the intellect against evil and lies, against idols, Jibt and Tagut, from the branches of which all evil springs.
And so, it is said that the best deed on the night of Qadr, which is the best night of the month of Ramadan, is to seek knowledge. The “knowledge” here is not simply acquiring some information, in the sense of “learning something new.” What is meant is true knowledge – the knowledge of all knowledge – what Imam Ali (A) called “al-maarifa bi-nuraniya” – “knowledge through light,” that is, knowledge of the truth of Ahl ul-Beit, which is the truth of all things. He who seeks this knowledge will turn the heat of the thirst of fasting into streams of water of sincerity in his heart and, during iftar, sit at the tablecloth of the Imam of Time, Hujjat ibni l-Hasan, may Allah hasten his coming. “And He made fasting an implantation of ikhlas,” according to Fatima Zahra…
May Allah accept from us and from you in this holy month!
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