Fasting, when done properly, gives everyone the experience of a more refined state of consciousness, a real taste of the higher possibilities of the human state. This is one example of how Islam offers salvation to all people, for even one who is normally ruled by his passions will find them stilled by fasting, opening his awareness to the spiritual reality of his soul.

Abû Hâmid al-Ghazzâlî writes that there are three levels of fasting: the common level in which food and drink do not pass the lips; the special level in which the limbs abstain from all sins and the tongue abstains from evil speech; and the most special level in which the heart fasts from all thoughts except those of God. When one is able to accomplish the first level, it serves as a step up to the higher levels.

Fasting regulates itself, since the religious law requires avoiding all sins and evil speech for the fast to be completely acceptable, and in my experience this is the way it works: The deprivation of food affects a person's physical and mental energy — not by depleting it, but by refining and uplifting it. When fasting I have found that my head is often on the verge of aching and becoming slightly giddy. What keeps my head feeling good and my mind clear is when my consciousness is calm, centered on good thoughts and remembrance of God. Instead of getting upset, be mellow. Keeping open that window to spiritual awareness connects me to the higher source of energy. My energy high, my head clear, I am stimulated to go through the day in a good state of being. But if while fasting I commit sins or my mind becomes occupied with debased thoughts, if I backbite or, worse, get into a quarrel or become angry, then my energy instantly disappears, my head becomes clouded, my state drops down low into the basement of my soul and I feel miserable.

This higher, more refined energy sustains me perfectly well as long as I am being good, but it is as delicate as a soap bubble. If it starts to slip a little, that is a reminder to breathe slowly and deeply and check the state of my consciousness and return it to the remembrance of God, to the invocation of the Divine Name by which all is eternally well. When fasting, we are constantly riding on the crest of that wave, carried along by Divine Grace.

Fasting in Ramadân takes you to a unique state of well-being, one that you cannot get any other way. This reminds me of the hadith which says that one of the gates of Paradise is opened exclusively to the person who fasts.

Bismillâh. When eating the predawn sahûr and when breaking the fast, always invoke the Divine Name before eating. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that if you don't invoke the Divine Name when you eat, you are really feeding the Devil. To invoke the Divine Name before eating means that the food works an alchemical transformation on your very being, transmuting your physical body so that its energy is reabsorbed upward into the higher levels it came from, and ultimately matter is redeemed by being returned to its spiritual source. The Sufis say that when they eat halâl food and then perform acts of worship, the food is contributing to the worship, and thus the material substance is spiritualized. If we could just eat consciously, with gratitude to our Sustainer, what barakât would not fill our lives!

al-Hamdu lillâh.