The Inner Secrets of Fasting(1)

"O who believe, fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you; perchance you will guard yourselves. (2:183)

Worldly knowledge allows the intellect to grow whereas Islamic knowledge allows one to enlighten the inner and outer self, allowing the heart to grow.

There are 3 Levels of Fasting:

Fast of the Layman:

This is the fast of the average person and is the lowest type of fasting where one just abstains from food, drink and sexual intercourse from dawn until sunset.

Fast of the Elect:

This is the fast of people who have a desire to reach Allah. Sawm means to stay away or to strip yourself from. The elect would try to refrain from the harms of the world, ultimately allowing the heart to beat in purity.

The Fast of the Elite from the Elect:

This is the highest level. The elite have been selected from the elect that were walking towards Allah. Hearts are already beating with this light the elect are trying to attain.

FASTING OF THE ELECT

A shaykh said 'the heart is a vast ocean.' The eyes, ears and limbs are sources of the ocean inside. If the eyes, ears, tongue and limbs are contaminated, heart will be contaminated.

1. Fasting of the eyes: We need to keep eyes away from everything which takes you away from the remembrance of Allah, not necessarily sinful to look at the object, but a mere glance could be a distraction, hence destructible. This could be not looking at ghair mahrams, avoiding looking at adverts, reading nonsense, cutting down the amount of time spent in front of the television etc.

2. Fasting of the ears: We should avoid exposing our ears to anything which is not beneficial, anything which is harmful should be avoided. You should only listen to somebody's problem if you can genuinely help them.

'The one who backbite and the one who listens are equal in the crime.' (hadith)

We should expose good things to the ears I.e. recitation of the Qur'an, Islamic lectures, nasheeds etc.

3. Fasting of the tongue: The eyes are covered by one eyelid, the ears in order to avoid something creeping in you must use your hands to cover them . Whereas in order to misuse the tongue one must separate the two lips and separate one's teeth, much more effort is required just to allow movement in the tongue, hence engaging in sin.

The tongue is like a 2 edged sword-it can either cause you to reach Allah or to the lowest pits of hell.

4. Fasting of the limbs: One must not walk towards sins or bad places. One should walk towards that which is beneficial and will draw one close to Allah. One should avoid misusing their hands I.e. using hem for cursing or hitting.

5. Abstaining from that which is permissible: One should not eat too much when breaking the fast. 'The sons of Adam have not filled a vessel worse than their own stomachs.' Eating too much breaks the spirit of what one has been dong all day. The gratefulness one feels for having the ability to choose what one desires or having hot food etc is lost as one only realises the worth of something when it is absent.

Shaytan reaches to a person through desire, so one must avoid indulging in their desires even if they are permissible as you become slaves of your desires rather than a slave of Allah.