On Ramadan
Twenty-Ninth Letter, Second Treatise
“In this section which will be about the noble Ramadan, the most brilliant and magnificent one among those rites, some of the wisdoms of the noble Ramadan will be mentioned. This second section comprises Nine Subtle Points that expound nine out of many wisdoms of the noble Ramadan.”
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giver
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِۤى اُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْاٰنُ هُدًى للِنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْهُدٰى وَالْفُرْقَانِ
It was in the month of Ramadan that the Qur’an was sent down as guidance for humankind, clear messages giving guidance and distinguishing between right and wrong… (Qur'an, 2: 285)
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ROUGH TRANSLATION from the RISALE-I NUR
translated by Dr. Mustafa Tuna
A rough translation of the section that is being discussed is posted below. This is a work in progress and should not be considered a finalized translation. It is only meant to help with understanding the recorded discussion.
On the noble Ramadan.
Having discussed to some extent the rites of Islam at the end of the first section, in this section which will be about the noble Ramadan, the most brilliant and magnificent one among those rites, some of the wisdoms of the noble Ramadan will be mentioned. This second section comprises Nine Subtle Points that expound nine out of many wisdoms of the noble Ramadan.
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giver
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِۤى اُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْاٰنُ هُدًى للِنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْهُدٰى وَالْفُرْقَانِ
It was in the month of Ramadan that the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for mankind, clear messages giving guidance and distinguishing between right and wrong… (Qur'an, 2: 285)
First Subtle Point
Fasting in the noble Ramadan is among the foremost of the five pillars of Islam. Furthermore, it is among the most tremendous rites of Islam.
So, among the many wisdoms of fasting in the noble Ramadan, there are wisdoms that concern the lordship of the Sublime Real, the social life of the human being, his personal life, the disciplining of the lower soul, and the gratitude pertaining to divine blessings.
One among the many wisdoms of fasting with regard to the Sublime Real’s lordship is this:
Having created the face of the earth in the form of a table of blessings and organized all varieties of His blessings on that table in a way مِنْ حَيْثُ لاَ يَحْتَسِبُ (whence it is not expected (Qur'an, 65: 3)), with that situation, the Sublime Real expresses the perfection of His lordship and that He is the Merciful and the Mercy-giver.
Under the veil of heedlessness and in the sphere of causes, people cannot fully recognize the reality that this situation expresses, and sometimes, they forget. During the noble Ramadan, the believers suddenly become an army in effect. With an attitude of worshipful slavehood as if they are invited to the banquet of the Sultan of Pre-eternity and are waiting for the command “Help yourselves!” as it gets close to the evening, they respond to that compassionate, sublime, and universal mercifulness with an extensive, tremendous, and orderly worshipful slavehood. Wonder, if the people who do not join in such worshipful slavehood and take their share from the honor of receiving munificence be worthy of being called human.
Second Subtle Point
One of the many wisdoms of the fasting of the blessed Ramadan with regard to gratitude for the Sublime Real’s blessings is this:
As it is stated in the First Word, the food that a traybearer brings from the kitchen of a king requires a price. It would be foolishness to tip the traybearer yet presume those much precious blessings to be worthless and to not recognize the one who blesses them. Likewise, the Sublime Real has spread out innumerable varieties of His blessings on the face of the earth, and in return, He is asking for gratitude as the price of those blessings. The apparent causes and possessors of those blessings are traybearers in effect. We give a price to those traybearers, we feel indebted to them. We even show them much respect, and we thank them even though they do not deserve it. Yet, by means of that blessing, the True Blessor deserves unlimitedly more gratitude than those causes. Thus, thanking Him, knowing those blessings directly from Him, and appreciating the value of those blessings is possible by feeling one’s own neediness for those blessings.
Therefore, fasting in the noble Ramadan, is the key to true, pure, tremendous, and universal gratitude. This is because, in other times, when the majority of those who are not under the pressure of necessity do not feel hunger, they cannot perceive the value of such blessings. People with full stomachs, and especially if they are rich, cannot understand the degree of blessing in a dry piece of bread. However, at the time of fast-breaking, a believer’s faculty of taste testifies to what a precious divine blessing that dry bread is in his sight. During the noble Ramadan, everybody, from the king to the poorest person, is graced with the realization of a metaphysical form of gratitude by understanding the value of those blessings.
Moreover, since eating is prohibited during the day, the believer recognizes the blessing as a blessing and shows a metaphysical form of gratitude by saying: “Those blessings are not my property. I am not free in consuming them. In that case, they are the property of and a blessing from someone else. I am waiting for His command.”
Thus, in these ways, fasting becomes in effect the key for gratitude, which is the true human duty in many respects.
Third Subtle Point
One of the many wisdoms of fasting with regard to human social life is this:
People have been created differently from the point of view of their livelihoods. Because of this difference, the Sublime Real invites the rich to the assistance of the poor. The rich can experience the pitiable and bitter state and hunger of the poor completely only through the hunger in fasting. Without fasting, many among the rich who are self-indulgent can perceive neither the pain of hunger and poverty nor how much the hungry and poor deserve to be shown compassion. Yet, such compassion for one’s fellow human being is the essence of true gratitude. Every person can find someone who is poorer in some respect than himself, and every person is accountable for showing compassion to that poorer person. Without the obligation to subject one’s lower soul to hunger, one cannot fulfill the bestowal and assistance for which he is held accountable by means of compassion; and even if he fulfills, it cannot be complete, for he is not experiencing that very state himself.
Fourth Subtle Point
One of the many wisdoms of the fasting of the noble Ramadan with regard to the nurturing of the lower soul is this:
The lower soul wants to be free and independent and considers itself to be so. As an aspect of its innate nature, it even desires a supposed lordship and desires to act however it wishes. It does not want to consider that it is being nurtured by means of unlimited blessings surrounding it. Especially if it has wealth and power in the world and heedlessness has also come to its assistance, it devours divine blessings like an animal, as if usurping or stealing them.
Yet in the noble Ramadan, the lower soul of everyone, from the richest to the poorest, understands that it does not own anything, it is owned; it is not free but a slave. If not commanded to do so, it cannot do the simplest and easiest thing. It cannot extend its hand to water even, and thus, its supposed lordship is broken. It assumes a state of worshipful slavehood and enters into a state of gratitude, which is its true duty.
Fifth Subtle Point
One of the many wisdoms of the fasting of the noble Ramadan with regard to the refinement of the lower soul’s manners and its abandonment of drunk-like transactions is this:
The human lower soul forgets itself, its true state, as a result of heedlessness. It cannot and does not want to see the unlimited impotence, endless poverty, and utmost deficiency in its quiddity. Furthermore, it does not think of how weak it is, that it is subject to extinction, it is the target of calamities, and it is composed of fast-decaying and disintegrating flesh and bone. It attacks the world as if it has a body of steel, as if it is immortal, as if it is imagining itself to be eternal. It throws itself onto the world with intense craving and greed, with passionate attachment and love. It becomes attached to everything that gives pleasure or benefit to it. Furthermore, it forgets about its Creator Who nurtures it with perfect compassion. It does not think about the conclusion of its life and nor about its life in the Hereafter. It wallows in a state of bad character.
Thus, the fasting in the noble Ramadan makes even the most heedless and most obstinate ones recognize their weakness, impotence, and poverty. One thinks about his stomach as a result of hunger and understands the neediness of his stomach. He remembers how fragile his weak body is. He perceives how much he is in need of mercy and compassion. He drops the lower soul’s pharaoh-like hubris, feels a desire to take refuge in the divine court in a state of complete impotence and poverty, and prepares to knock on the doors of mercy with the hand of metaphysical gratitude – if heedlessness has not spoiled his heart.
Sixth Subtle Point
One of the wisdoms with regard to the Wise Qur’an being sent down during the noble Ramadan and the noble Ramadan being a most significant time in the revelation of the Wise Qur'an is this:
Since the Wise Qur’an has been sent down in the month of Ramadan, one is graced with sacred states upon preparing for the time of that Qur'an’s descent in order to welcome that heavenly address in the noble Ramadan by freeing oneself from meaningless states and acquiring a resemblance to the angelic condition through the cessation of eating and drinking and upon reading and listening to that Qur’an in a way as if it is newly being sent down and listening to the divine addresses as though at the moment of their descent, as if listening to that address from the Noble Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), rather, from Our Master Gabriel, yet rather, from the Pre-eternal Speaker. And doing this is to be an interpreter for others to listen and to show the wisdom of the Qur'an’s descent to some extent.
Yes, in the noble Ramadan, it is as though the world of Islam becomes a mosque in effect. Such a mosque that millions of Qur'an memorizers have the denizens of the world hear that Qur'an, that heavenly address in the corners of that great mosque. Every Ramadan shows the verse شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِۤى اُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْاٰنُ (It was in the month of Ramadan that the Qur’an was sent down…) in a luminous and brilliant way and proves that Ramadan is the month of the Qur'an. Among the other members of that tremendous congregation, some listen to those memorizers of the Qur'an in a state of reverence and others recite on their own.
However ugly it is to follow the lowly soul’s desires and thus, exit that luminous condition in such a holy mosque by eating and drinking and however much this would be the target of the metaphysical hatred of the congregation in that mosque, likewise to that extent, those who violate the fast in the noble Ramadan become the target of hatred and disdain of the entire world of Islam.
Seventh Subtle Point
One of the many wisdoms of fasting in Ramadan with regard to the acquisitions of the humankind who come to this world in order to cultivate it for the Hereafter and engage in it in otherworldly trade is this:
During the noble Ramadan, the reward for deeds is a thousand to one. According to the prophetic traditions, each letter of the Wise Qur’an has ten rewards; it counts as ten good deeds and yields ten fruits of Paradise. During the noble Ramadan, each letter has not ten but a thousand, some verses such as the Verse of the Throne (Qur’an, 2: 255) have thousands, and this is even more on the Fridays of the noble Ramadan. On the Night of Power, each letter counts as thirty thousand good deeds. Yes, the Wise Qur’an each of whose letters yields thirty thousand everlasting fruits becomes a luminous Tuba tree in effect and causes the believers to earn millions of everlasting fruits during the noble Ramadan. Here, come, look at this sacred, eternal, and profitable trade, observe this situation and think, so that you understand what an unlimited loss that those who fail to appreciate the value of these letters are suffering.
Hence, the noble Ramadan is, as it were, an utterly profitable display hall and a marketplace for the trade of the Hereafter. It is an utterly fertile ground to reap otherworldly yields. It is the April showers for the flourishing of deeds. It is in effect a most brilliant and sacred celebration for the parade of humankind’s worshipful slavehood before the royal power of divine lordship. And because this is so, the human being has become accountable to fast in order to avoid the lower soul’s needs that become animalistic due to heedlessness and its meaningless appetites that indulge vain desires. Because the human being temporarily leaves animality and acquires an angelic condition or enters upon the trade of the Hereafter, it is as though by leaving one’s worldly needs temporarily, one takes on the condition of an otherworldly person and a spirit appearing in bodily form, and thus, one holds a kind of mirror to Eternal besoughtedness (samadiyyah) with his fasting.
Yes, the noble Ramadan entails and makes one earn in this world and within this temporal lifespan and short life, an everlasting lifespan and long and lasting life. Yes, a single Ramadan can make one earn the fruits of an eighty-year long span of life. That the Night of Power is better than a thousand months according to the Qur’an is definitive evidence for this secret.
Yes, in the way that during his reign or in fact every year, a sultan designates the day of his enthronement or some other days that are graced by the splendid ramifications of his royal power to be days of celebration. On that day, he graces his subjects not within the confines of general laws but with his special bestowals, unveiled presence, personal favors, and extraordinary acts. And he turns to his deserving and loyal nation with his personal attention… In like fashion, the Majestic Emperor of the eighteen thousand realms Who is the Sultan of pre-eternity and post-eternity has sent down the Wise Qur'an, which is a glorious decree looking to those eighteen thousand realms and facing them, during the noble Ramadan. Of course, wisdom calls for that Ramadan to become in effect a divine celebration, a lordly display, and a spiritual assembly.
Since Ramadan is that celebration, of course in it will be the command to fast in order to pull people away from preoccupations that are to some extent lowly and animalistic. And the most perfect form of fasting is to have all senses, the eye, the ear and human faculties such as the heart, the imagination, and the mind fast along with the stomach. That is to say, to pull them away from what is lawfully prohibited and meaningless and direct them each to their specific form of worshipful slavehood. For example, to have one’s tongue fast by disengaging it from lying, backbiting, and obscene expressions and to occupy that tongue with the recitation of the Qur'an and with things like remembrance, glorification, sending salutations, and asking for forgiveness. Or for example, to have other organs also fast by prohibiting one’s eye from looking at marriageable members of the other sex and one’s ear from hearing evil things and by devoting one’s eye to what is edifying and ear to true and meaningful words and the Qur'an. As a matter of fact, since the stomach is the largest factory, if it is given a break from working, other small workbenches can easily be made to follow it.
Eighth Subtle Point
One of the many wisdoms of the Noble Ramadan with regard to the personal life of a human being is this:
The material and metaphysical diet [of fasting] is a most important type of medicine; it is a diet from a health point of view for the human being. When the lower soul of a human being acts as it wishes, attacking everything without consideration for what is lawfully permissible and what is prohibited, as it were, poisons one’s metaphysical life, in addition to the harm that this causes in a person’s material life from a health point of view. As a result, obeying the heart and the spirit becomes difficult for that lower soul. It becomes unruly and takes its reins in its own hands. The human being cannot ride it any longer; it rides the human being.
In the noble Ramadan, the lower soul gets used to a type of diet; it trains to achieve self-discipline and learns to follow command. It does not attract sicknesses on the helpless stomach by filling it with more food before having digested the previously eaten food either. By leaving what is lawfully permissible upon command, it acquires an ability to follow the commands of the intellect and the Shariah to abstain from what is lawfully prohibited. It tries not to ruin the metaphysical life.
Furthermore, the absolute majority of people become afflicted with hunger frequently. They need practice and training through hunger in order to improve their patience and forbearance. The fasting in the noble Ramadan is a training, a practice, and a fifteen-hour period of patience and forbearance, or even twenty-four hours if one skips the pre-dawn meal too. In that case, one of the medicines for impatience and lack of forbearance, double the calamity for human beings, is fasting.
Furthermore, the stomach factory has many servants, and many of the types of human equipment relate to it. If the lower soul does not take a break during daytime temporarily for a month, it makes the servants of that factory and that equipment forget about their specific forms of worship, occupying them with itself all the time and subordinating them to its despotic rule. It leads other types of human equipment to a disorderly state with the noise and smoke rising from the gears of that metaphysical factory too. It continuously draws their attention to itself. It temporarily makes them forget their lofty duties. This is why the aspirants of sainthood have long accustomed themselves to self-discipline and to eating and drinking little in order to progress toward perfection.
However, through the fasting of the noble Ramadan, the servants of that factory understand that they have not been created for that factory alone. In lieu of the lowly entertainments of that factory, other types of equipment delight in angelic and spiritual entertainments during the noble Ramadan; they have their eyes on [those spiritual entertainments]. This is why the believers are each graced with different lights, effusions, and metaphysical joys according to their degrees during the noble Ramadan. Various faculties such as the heart, the spirit, and the secret achieve much progress and receive much effusion through fasting in that blessed month. They laugh innocently, even though the stomach is crying.
Ninth Subtle Point
One of the wisdoms of the fasting in the noble Ramadan with regard to breaking the lower soul’s supposed lordship and making it recognize its worshipful slavehood by exposing its impotence is this:
The lower soul does not want to recognize its Lord; it demands lordship for itself in a pharaonic way. That vein remains with it no matter how much it is tormented. Yet hunger breaks that vein. Hence, the fasting in the noble Ramadan deals a blow directly to the pharaonic aspect of the lower soul and breaks it. It exposes the lower soul’s impotence, weakness, and poverty and makes it know that it is a slave.
It is mentioned in the narrations of prophetic traditions that:
The Sublime Real has asked the lower soul: “What am I? What are you?”
The lower soul has responded: “I am I, you are you?”
So He has tormented it. He has put it in Hell and asked again. Yet it has still responded: “I am I, you are you.” Whichever way He has tormented it, the lower soul has not abandoned its I-ness.
Then, He has tormented it with hunger. That is, He has left it hungry, then asked again: “Who am I? What are you?”
The lower soul has responded:
اَنْتَ رَبِّى الرَّحِيمُ وَاَنَا عَبْدُكَ الْعَاجْزُ
That is, “You are my Merciful Lord. I am an impotent slave of Yours.”
اَللّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلٰى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ صَلٰوةً تَكُونُ لَكَ رِضَاۤءً وَلِحَقِّهِ اَدَاۤءً بِعَدَدِ ثَوَابِ حُرُوفِ الْقُرْأٰنِ فِى شَهْرِ رَمَضَانِ وَعَلٰۤى اٰلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلِّمْ
سُبْحَانَ رَبِّكَ رَبِّ العِزَّةِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ وَسَلاَمٌ عَلَى الْمُرْسَلِينَ وَالْحَمْدُ ِللهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ اٰمِينَ
O God, send on our Master Muhammad your blessings and greetings of peace in a way that earns Your contentment and fulfills his right to the number of the rewards of the Qur’an letters that are recited in the month of Ramadan and on his family and companions.
Glory be to Your Lord, the Lord of majesty above what they attribute to Him. // Peace be to those sent as messengers, // and praise be to God, the Lord of the realms (Qur’an, 37? 180-82).
Apology: Since this “Second Section” was written quickly in forty minutes and since I and the scribe who wrote the draft were both sick, it is bound to be somewhat disorganized and have some defects. We expect our brothers to give it the benefit of the doubt while reading. They can fix the parts that they think need to be fixed.