Ramadan Benefits as told by Sheikh Kubra

Mausoleum of Sheikh Kubra

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

NajmudSheikh din Kubra or Najm al-Din Kubra is better known as the founder of Kubrawiyya Sufi order. He is also remembered as   the 'Pillar of the Age' and one of the greatest Sufis of all time. He is also called as ‘ the Saint maker’ in view of his spiritual attainments and excellence of   his students on the path of Sufism. Some of his close associates included names like His close associates included great mystics like Sheikh Sadi of Shiraz (1184-1291) and Sheikh Shahabudin Suhrawardi (1145-1235) the founder of Suhrawardi School.

His most prominent work is considered  to be ‘ Adab al-suluk ila Hadrat Malik al-Muluk’ (Etiquette of the Wayfarer in Journeying to the Lord of Kingdom).It  provides a concise guideline for wayfarers of the Sufi Path on the subject how to reach God. It is a Classic Sufi text and enables knowledge seeker to understand clearly fabric of reality, various interpenetrating stages of the spiritual journey and the outward and inwards rules.

Born in 540/1145, in Konve, Kubra began his career as a scholar of Hadees and Kalam. His interest in Sufism began in Egypt where he became a murid of Sheikh Ruzbihan Baghli Shirazi, who was an initiate of the Oveisy order. After years of study, he abandoned his exploration of the religious sciences and devoted himself entirely to the Sufi way of life. Kubra died during the Mongol conquest in 1221.It is narrated in  Tarikh-e-Soheili "The master was old and half blind but he refused the grant of Mongols for his own life only and asked the invaders to leave, when the Mongols  entered the city he was standing in the main square and had stones in his lap while throwing them on Mongols"

The 13^th century Sufi master also composed  a booklet, titled “Treatise of the Bewildered Ecstatic Traveler”. Though it is a short Sufi text on spiritual practice but it deals comprehensively with the benefits of fasting .The Sheikh has given the following advantages of fasting in the most remarkable manner:

1. Resemblance to spiritual beings, because they eat nothing of what we eat.
2. The restraining of the ego, which incites towards evil, being thus the enemy of God, the Elevated.
3. The obtaining of a distinction as: “The fasting is for My sake and I reward it”.
4. The receipt of a recompense without end as: “Only the patient will obtain their recompense without reckoning” (Q 39:10).
5. The purification of the sins of the ego.
6. The washing away of the dust of the ego from the tablet of the spirit, so that the inscriptions of the inner sciences may appear, as “Successful is that one who purifies it. The one who adulterates it fails” (Q 91-9-10).
7. The no longer seeing by means of the eyes of the heart of roads which imply a detour, because when you get hungry the arrogance, which can be found in the eye of your heart may take a leave.
8. When you are fasting, you close off the roads to Satan. These roads are the veins in your body and the demon moves about in the veins and skin.
9. It provides a shield against the demon and against hell as “fasting is a shield”.
10. Your name gets inscribed in the list of the sincere ones, as fasting is an act of devotion in which hypocrisy and showing off have no place.
11. It gives you an understanding of the suffering of the hungry and thus being able to treat them with compassion and mercy.
12.  It gives you two joys, as “the one who is fasting has two joys: one when breaking the fast and the other when meeting with one's Lord”. This means there is one joy when he or she breaks the fast, not because of the prospect of eating bread, but because of having fasted for a day for the sake of the satisfaction of God, the Elevated, so that on the Day of Resurrection He will offer provision. The other joy is the vision of God, the Elevated on the Day of Resurrection.
13. It empties the worst of containers, because “there is no worse container than your belly”.
14. It has to do with deserving of trust, because fasting is the trust of God, the Elevated, as no one is aware of the faster except God.
15. It has to do with keeping your promise, because when you express your intention to fast, then this is a promise you make to God, the Elevated.
16. It will give you the rank of trust, because if “you do a voluntary fast, then you are in command of your soul”.
17. It will give you something good in your account: if you complete the fast then 100 percent good is written in your account and if it is not completed you still can add 10 percent. It has been promised by the messenger of God (s.a.w.) that “the intention of the believer is more perfect than his acts”. If the action is so excellent that when you complete it with sincerity, then you can write 100 percent, nevertheless there is still the danger that when hypocrisy and showing off enter, your fasting will just be a in vain. But with a pure intention this is not the case, because your intention is an act of your heart. Angels are unaware hereof. Other human beings are also unable to perceive your intention. Thus there is no room for hypocrisy and showing off.
18. It helps you to avoid silly and foolish speech.
19. “A futility is not counted against a faster after his next prayer” is a promise of the messenger of God (s.a.w.).
20. No matter what, if you are fasting you receive the help of God, because “Ask for help by patience and prayer” (Q 2:45 , 153) that is by the fast and by the prayer.
21.  It gives you a healthy body

If one carefully goes through the benefits outlined by Sheikh Kubra, he  will not only realize the gains from fasting, enhancement in spirituality quotient but also  strive to keep fasts even in the most trying circumstances. The modern world needs Muslims to be spiritually very strong  to give a befitting reply to terror outfits like IS which is bent upon killing innocent people even in the holy month of Ramadan in the name of Islam. Their attacks are leaving the world wondering what kind of Islam they are talking about. Islam means peace, total submission and surrender whereas IS has turned it into a synonym of terror as had happened  during the ‘caliphate’ of Yazid.( Reference available on request)