13 Ramadan 1431

In the Risalat al-Huquq, Imam Sajjad (`a) writes about the right that our fasting has over us:

The right of fasting is that you know it is a veil that Allah has set up over your tongue, your hearing, your sight, your stomach, and your private parts to protect you from the Fire. If you abandon the fast, you will have torn God's protective covering away from yourself.

Coverings can be good or bad. The bad ones are barriers that prevent us from reaching our goals. The good ones are armor against Satan, barriers against the evils that surround us. The protective covering (hijab) can take many forms. It can be a retreat or seclusion. It can be a sanctuary. In the olden days criminals would seek sanctuary at shrines, and the police would leave them alone there until they came out. How is fasting supposed to protect us? How can it be a sanctuary? Is it because we keep our tongues, hearing, sight, stomach and privates from sin? But we are supposed to be doing that all the time, whether fasting or not. I think the fast is one in which we are to keep our tongues, hearing, etc., not only from what is prohibited, but from what is otherwise allowed. When we fast, we refrain from food, drink, and sex, which are otherwise allowed. But we should try to abstain even from what is otherwise allowed to see and hear and say, to try to make our fasting into a little hijab for us to crawl under and where we can concentrate on our relationship to Allah.

Sometimes our relationship to Allah suffers from the adversities we face, and sometimes, and even worse, in times of good fortune when one becomes neglectful. We should pray for all our brothers and sisters whose relationship with God has suffered because of adversity or fortune, and hope that during this month of fasting they may find sanctuary by which to restore themselves in communion with Him. We should try to cut off not only food during the hours of the fast, but to spend some hours cut off from everything but God. Then maybe we can gain some understanding of the negative coverings that prevent us from enjoying divine love through adversity and fortune.