In Ramadhan, fasting from food, water and other things sets a context within which we can try to establish God’s presence in our life.
We also know that we are not supposed to only fast from food, drinks etc., but from all hypocrisy, all lies, all dishonesty, all backbiting and all evil. Thus, in a part of the 44th supplication of Al-Sahifa Al-Sajjadiyya, Imam Sajjad (A.S) welcomes the Month of Ramadhan :
“Praise be to Allah (SWT), who ordained this month, the Month of Ramadhan, the month of fasting, the month of Islam, the month of purity, the month of purification, and the month of prayers. In this month the Quran was made to descend as a guidance to mankind and contains clear instructions and distinctions. God gave this month superiority over all other months by giving it abundant honor and dignity. God prohibited in it what has been allowed in other months in order to exalt it, and forbade in it food and drink in order to honor it.
O’ Lord! Bless Muhammad (PBUH) and his family (AS), and inspire us to know this month’s excellence, and to honor its dignity, and to abstain from whatever God has forbidden in it. Help us to observe its fast, by restraining our limbs from disobeying God, and by employing them in that which would please God, so that we may not lend our ears to any vain speech, and may not direct our eyes, hands and feet towards anything forbidden, and that nothings fills our stomachs except what God has made lawful, and our tongues may not utter anything except what God has allowed.
O’ Lord! Bless Muhammad (PBUH) and his family (AS), and give us grace to perform timely the five prayers with due regard to their limits which You have enjoined, and the rites which GOd prescribed. In this respect, raise us to the rank of those who performed them with success, who duly observed their essential points, who always performed them at proper times, in most perfect and complete humility according to the rules laid down by God’s Prophet (PBUH), may God’s blessings be on him and his family.
And our Lord, give us grace in this month, to show favors to our relations, and do good to them, and to take care of our neighbors and do good to them, to take care of our neighbors with kindness and benevolence, to purge our property of obligations, and purify it by giving charity, and to call back those who have left us, and be just to those who were unjust to us, and make pace with those who were hostile to us.
O’ Lord! Erase our sins with the disappearance of this month’s crescent, and free us from our penalties with the completion of its days, so that the month may pass from us while God has cleansed us of our guilts, and freed us from our sins. O’ Lord! Fill this month with our worship of you alone, and adorn its moments with our service to God, and help us in the daytime to observe the fast, and at night to pray and beseech God, help us to humble ourselves before you and lower ourselves in God’s presence.”
Source: en.shafaqna.com
