Ramadan a major event that reminds us of our similarity and similarity regardless of how much difference we have. No matter how far apart we are or how different our thinking and minds are, fasting has a magic that closes all distances and brings us closer together. The way we fast reminds us that we are equal, this is the obligation that was prescribed for us and for those before us, even Adam (peace be upon him).
When I contemplate the obligation of fasting, I find it as if it refers us to the fundamental purpose of our existence in this world, which is to discover the essence of our humanity. Fasting is one of the most effective ways to think about man and understand what his existence is, since fasting in essence makes man feel that he is a human being, a person who willingly refrains from answering the call of two of the strongest and most powerful instincts. If the fasting person succeeds in controlling these two instincts for 30 days, he is able to lead himself in front of its habits and desires and lead it towards what is good and happy and his reconstruction of the earth, which is his first and main task, and this is the essence of humanity in its best form.
The modern world treats man only with the principle of individualism, a man who knows his rights well and runs after them and fights for them. The desires that an individual must satisfy and fulfill are the most important, and it is a radical matter that must be fulfilled above all else. It entrenches a person's isolation from his social milieu, and perhaps his dissolution and the disappearance of his human relationships.
In his book "Al-Nabah wa Al-Ibtihar", the thinker Ali Shariati gives an example of many of the issues defended by modern man, without completing his understanding of them, he says: "They call for individual freedom, and they invite you to it in order to camouflage the minds, and inattention to social intelligence, where man sees himself individually free in his food and desires, as a cage in which a bird, has been placed in a completely closed hall, and then opened the door of the cage, it is a false sense of freedom, because the prisoner who knows that he is captured tries to release himself, and freed from captivity, while he who does not feel captive and feels free, his feeling is an illusion and a lie."
This is an accurate description of the condition of modern man, in which individualism develops as the lifeline of salvation for his suffering, and as a way to set out to achieve pleasure and pleasure as the title of contemporary life. This trend may lead to the destruction of the characteristics of the human race, in light of the technological and digital revolution in which the relationship with the machine has become the best option.
This is precisely what makes fasting a highly important act, in which man can learn resistance and patience, and because we are all one thing and do one action, it alerts us that our rights are also linked to the human rights of others, and that desires and desires are not the only ones that we must satisfy, man is not a being who lives only to seek his rights, because the rights of those who are despised, oppressed and persecuted are at the heart of his duty in this world, he is a being who is somehow responsible towards his humanity.
At the heart of the human rights problem stems from people's desire to dominate others, that is, to focus on their own desires without regard to the needs of others. This violent nature of domination within man, and his excessive desire to do injustice to others, is what makes him the most complex being on earth, and it is what makes him a unique creature entrusted with a very difficult task.
God Almighty explains in the verse "Man is overwhelmed * if he sees him dispensed", how tyranny occurs in man, and how he forgets other people and their rights. If a person sees himself dispensed, he is overwhelmed, from tyranny and he is beyond the limit. If he saw that he had dispensed with the mercy of God, he was overwhelmed and indifferent. If he sees that he has dispensed with God Almighty in revealing distress and obtaining liabilities, he does not pay attention to God and does not care. If he sees that he has dispensed with health, he forgets the disease, if he sees that he has dispensed with satiety, he forgets hunger, and if he sees that he has dispensed with clothing, he forgets nudity. And so on.
Man is by nature tyranny and rebellion whenever he sees himself in riches, but this brings out the believer, because the believer does not see that he has dispensed with God Almighty in the blink of an eye, he always lacks God Almighty, he asks his Lord every need, and resorts to him when every evil, and sees that if God entrusts him to himself and entrusts him to weakness, helplessness and difficulty, and that he has neither benefit nor harm for himself. This is the believer, but man, as a man, is by his nature tyranny, and this is as the Almighty says: "And man bore it, for he was unjust and ignorant."
Dispensation and tyranny are attitudes that come from each other. As long as man thinks that he owns the world, as long as he believes that he knows everything or many things, as long as he believes that what he knows or has is sufficient for him and for the fulfillment of his desires, as long as he believes that he can get rid of all beings under his authority or that he can endure whatever he wants, he goes deeper and deeper into tyranny and transcends its limits.
Fasting is an act that reminds us all of our helplessness, that we are in dire need of God Almighty and each other, and that doing justice to each other is the basis of our cohesion and continuity in this world, otherwise tyranny will dominate our actions, and then we will be like those who live by the law of the jungle.
Fasting teaches us an important truth, which is that even though we think we have everything, we may actually have nothing. Here are our bodies before us that have desires and desires, but we cannot respond to them with what we want, but with what God wants. At this time of each year, we will act with our bodies according to the mechanism of use that God has set for us. Fasting teaches us our responsibility to others through this thinking, for just as I do possess this body, but I have no right to dispose of it as I want whenever I want, and so is our responsibility to others, the world is not only made of me, and I am not alone in it, but I have a responsibility to others that I must fulfill.
Last year, fasting came in a much different way than we used to before. He came under severe and harsh lockdowns, curfews that prevented us from gathering together, and locked us at home. This lockdown was somewhat similar to the nature of fasting, as we already exist but cannot act as we want. There was something bigger than us that we all had to follow, for our own safety, for our responsibility to each other, for our safety.
This year, we have been socially closed, so we are able to meet and hold group iftars, taraweeh and interviews. Perhaps we must remember as we practice these customs that we have rights and duties towards each other, which we must carry out so that our souls can touch the good found in fasting, and bring the essence of our humanity to its highest level.