Thursday
The holy month of Ramadan begins today so here’s a Rumi poem on fasting that 1.8 billion people will be undertaking. The purpose of fasting, as an Islamic website informs me, is
to develop the quality of righteousness, inwardly and outwardly, by abstaining from sinful deeds and training ourselves to control our thoughts and desires. Fasting is a deeply spiritual practice that is meant to benefit us in body, mind, and heart.
In Rumi’s Ramadan poem, he talks of being immersed in busyness the way a chick “frets within the egg…eating and choaking.” With fasting, we break free and fly. Though the lips are parched and the belly empty, the mind focuses on what is important:
The lips of the Master are parched from calling the Beloved. The sound of your call resounds through the horn of your empty belly.
When we empty ourselves, we are like the reed through which music is played. Or we are like Mary, who opened herself to the Holy Spirit and gave birth to Jesus.
O moon-faced Beloved,
the month of Ramadan has arrived
Cover the table
and open the path of praise.
O fickle busybody,
it’s time to change your ways.
Can you see the one who’s selling the halvah
how long will it be the halvah you desire?
Just a glimpse of the halvah-maker
has made you so sweet even honey says,
“I’ll put myself beneath your feet, like soil;
I’ll worship at your shrine.”
Your chick frets within the egg
with all your eating and choking.
Break out of your shell that your wings may grow.
Let yourself fly.
The lips of the Master are parched
from calling the Beloved.
The sound of your call resounds
through the horn of your empty belly.
Let nothing be inside of you.
Be empty: give your lips to the lips of the reed.
When like a reed you fill with His breath,
then you’ll taste sweetness.
Sweetness is hidden in the Breath
that fills the reed.
Be like Mary – by that sweet breath
a child grew within her.
