At the heart of the Revelation ordering the fasting of the month of Ramadan, is transmitted to the Prophet (saw), an unusual verse:

And when My servants ask you about Me… then I am very close: I respond to the call of the one who calls Me when he calls Me. Let them respond to My call, and believe in Me, so that they may be well guided. (The Quran 2:186)

God is near. This, the faster must feel. Intimately. Not eating, drinking and controlling your desires would be just one way. The end is to reach a deep awareness of God, to approach Him. Elsewhere, Revelation teaches us that fasting was thus prescribed to the peoples of yesteryear with the same objective of being with God.

As if, over time, it has been essential to remind humanity of the fact that God is near. We have too often rejected, denied, neglected, forgotten. Even His servants, literally here, His worshippers, need to access His closeness more deeply. They seek, they reflect, they question themselves, they challenge the Prophets, down to the last among them. On God. And the answer suffers from no hesitation: “I am very close”. 

To affirm in the same breath, in the first person singular, that He answers the call of the one who calls Him when he calls Him is an avowal of divine love. There is nothing between God and the servant-worshipper. Whatever the state of the latter, sinner or pious, rich or poor, white or black, woman or man, God shows him His reverent and affectionate closeness as soon as he turns to Him. Any intermediary between Creator and creature disappears to the point where mention is not even made of the Prophet (saw). This link with God is not a matter of reason or emotion, although the two are intertwined, it is of an order that is unlike anything else that a being can experience.

Whoever feels His call must respond to it, believe in Him and will be well guided. Not eating, drinking, and indulging desires, otherwise legitimate acts, give the fast its form. The main thing is not in what our eyes see, but in being close to God. A state that can only be lived in the modesty, humility and sincerity of those who seek to please the Beloved.

This consciousness of God, the quest of the faster, is also the provision of the pilgrim who journeys towards the House of God, of the fighter on the Way of God, of the creature who belongs to God and towards Whom is the return.

Or nos cœurs se sont endurcis. Nous avons pris les moyens pour la finalité. L’apparence est là, mais sommes-nous parvenus  à  nous approcher de Dieu ?  Nous sommes loin de cette aspiration originelle vers le bien qui doit nous animer.  Notre foi n’illumine pas notre raisonnement.  Le convenable, la justice, la paix   et éventuellement l’amour de Dieu et de Ses créatures ne  sont qu’une illusion lorsque ne demeure que la forme.  L’uniformité  devient la norme et nous oublions que Dieu a voulu la diversité. Notre  fraternité, spirituelle, familiale  ou plus largement humaine,  souffre car nous ne comprenons pas que Dieu nous aurait fait identique s’Il l’avait voulu.  Avons-nous, esprits si  limités,  fait de la forme que nous donnons à notre religion notre  idole?

All is lost ? Absolutely not, because God is near even though we cannot give Him any form. It is enough to answer His Call and believe in Him so that we are well guided. But not only in form…