However, fasting in the month of Ramadan awakens even the most heedless and obstinate to their weakness, impotence, and want. Hunger makes them think of their stomachs and they understand the need therein. They realize how unsound are their weak bodies, and perceive how needy they are for kindness and compassion. So they abandon the soul’s pharaoh-like despotism and recognizing their utter impotence and want, perceive a desire to take refuge at the divine court. They prepare themselves to knock at the door of mercy with the hands of thankfulness – so long as heedlessness has not destroyed their hearts, that is.

S i x t h  P o i n t

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan from the point of view of the revelation of the All-Wise Qur’an, and the month of Ramadan being the most important time in its revelation, is as follows:

Since the All-Wise Qur’an was revealed in the month of Ramadan, to shun the lower  demands  of  the  soul  and  trivialities  and  to  resemble  the  angelic  state  by abstaining  from food and drink in order to greet that heavenly address in the best manner, is to attain to a holy state. And to read and listen to the Qur’an as though it were just revealed, to listen to the divine address in it as if it were being revealed that very  instant,  to  listen  to  that  address  as  though  hearing  it  from  God’s  Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), indeed, from the Angel Gabriel, or from the Pre-Eternal Speaker Himself, is to attain to that same holy state. To act in this way is to act as an interpreter and to cause others to listen to it and in some degree to demonstrate the wisdom in the Qur’an’s revelation.

Indeed, it is as if the world of Islam becomes a mosque during the month of Ramadan in every corner of which millions of those who know the whole Qur’an by heart make the dwellers on the earth hear the heavenly address. Each Ramadan proclaims  in luminous shining manner the verse “It was the month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was bestowed from on high;” it proves that Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an. Some of the members of the vast congregation  listen to the reciters with reverence, while others read it themselves.