The Holiness of Ramadan Fasting

Spiritual Sunday

Writing in response to my post on obesity and spiritual hunger, reader Farida Bag of Uganda wrote,

I found the passage from the Bible mentioned by your wife thought-provoking, particularly as we Muslims approach the month of Ramadan. I used to resent this month for various reasons when I was younger (even in my twenties) but now I find that, while the month of fasting is tough for me, it is also growing in meaningfulness on many different levels.

The month-long ritual observance of praying and fasting (worshippers may not eat between sunrise and sunset) begins Wednesday. In honor of Farida and others embarking on this profound spiritual journey, I offer up a poem by Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet, Sufism being the mystical wing of Islam:

Fasting

There is an unseen sweetness
in the stomach’s emptiness.

We are lutes.
When the soundbox is filled,
no music can come forth.

When the brain and the belly
are burning from fasting,
every moment a new song rises
out of the fire.

The mists clear,
and a new vitality makes you
spring up the steps before you.

Be empty and cry as a reed instrument.
Be empty and write secrets with a reed pen.
When satiated by food and drink,
an unsightly metal statue
is seated where your spirit should be.

When fasting, good habits gather like
helpful friends.

Fasting is Solomon’s ring.
Don’t give in to illusion
and lose your power.

But even when all will and control
have been lost,
they will return when you fast,
like soldiers appearing out of the ground,
or pennants flying in the breeze.

A table descends to your tents,
the Lord’s table.
Anticipate seeing it when fasting,
this table spread with a different food,
far better than the broth of cabbages.

From The Essential Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moynes