The Inspiration of Fasting

Ramadan — if people grasped its meaning, they would not fast it as they fast. And if people drew upon its inspiration, they would not starve their bellies while their souls are glutted with cravings and their hearts filled with greed.

Ramadan is a month for denying the self and giving to others; for spiritual discipline, for good works, for aid, service, and charity. For hunger — and O hunger, how many lessons you hold! Had people taken the lesson to heart, they would not go hungry as they do.

All religions have ordained fasting, though the ways of it differ. Yet gluttonous man has forgotten none of his ambitions, nor abstained from his designs; the locked powers of the spirit have not been set free in his depths; he has not risen up against the selfishness within him; he has not lifted himself, nor been lifted, from the stumble of strife; he has not triumphed in the battles of mutual envy; nor has the self raised itself above its own abysses.

Fasting is to weaken the body and strengthen the spirit, that it may range through its kingdoms and look down from them upon this weak body; that it may bestir itself to seek out those ideal spirits and follow in their track; that it may dive into the depths to search out those wretched souls and console them; and that it may work — for in the work of spirits there is vigil, worship, and fasting.

The fast! Would that we fasted from doing harm before we fast from food; would that we rose high enough to understand its wisdom; and would that we simply went down to the river — the great river — the river of love that washes away every stain.

What is there in fasting, if we do not do this? If we do not renounce, even for a single hour, everything that makes us forget the individual's duty toward man — toward this wretched one, this hungry one, this sick one; toward the one astray in the abysses of humiliation, and the one wandering in the deserts of rancor, intrigue, and hatred?

What, O people, is there in fasting, if there is still among us one who thinks of harming the child in his mother's bosom, and the boy at his school desk? Would that we found our way to God, to truth, to virtue: the virtue of fasting from every vice, the virtue of the greatest faith.

O light, do not go out — for man cannot walk in darkness. Your flame is tossed by the tongues of the reckless winds, and I lay my hand upon my heart, fearful and trembling. I want light for man — the everlasting light that shines forth from faith.