Declaration – 1 Ramadan 1432 (2011-08-01)

Declaration from Hazrat Dr. Nour Ali Tabandeh, Majzoub Ali Shah
On the Occasion of the Blessed Month of Ramadan

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I extend congratulations and best wishes to all believers on the arrival of the blessed month of Ramadan. We all offer our gratitude to the Divine Presence for preserving us under His grace for another year and granting us the success to witness yet another Ramadan.

1. I hope that with our presence in Ramadan once more, God will perfect our success, making this an opportunity to make amends for past mistakes (اَستَغفِرُ الله رَبِّي وَاَتُوبُ اِلَيه) (“I seek forgiveness from Allah, my Lord, and I turn to Him in repentance.”).
2. A major fault we possess, which governs us involuntarily, is that we often mistake the path for the destination. By clinging to words and outer appearances, we imagine ourselves free of the need for meaning and essence. We consider verbal prayer sufficient, and without seeking its meaning, we merely “recite prayers”. Sadly, since we have made the Quran a deserted book, we call it the “Spring of the Quran”.
3. The Quran must always remain central in our minds and thoughts. However, because we unfortunately place it in autumn and winter, we call this month the “Spring of the Quran”. We must always live in the presence of the Quran—its meaning, its complete moral virtues, its prophethood, wilayah, and imamate—but we content ourselves with the shell and the surface, thinking ourselves exempt from seeking the essence.
4. To understand the advent of Ramadan, we perform moon sighting (istihlal), but moon sighting is a means, not the goal. Reaching consensus in this matter is difficult—perhaps impossible. Therefore, we must ask the religious and scholarly authorities around the world to find a way to prevent division so that we may all begin fasting together and break our fasts together on Eid.
5. Paying attention to meaning during recitation is essential. With such mindful recitation, even a single surah is enough.
6. We should ask God to grant us, God willing, the success to complete the month with dignity and free from obstinacy. For the ill, pregnant (expecting), and others in similar conditions, fasting is not only not obligatory but is in fact discouraged. We should carry out God’s command as He has stated it—free from stubbornness, personal preferences, and habitual behavior. The sigh of regret from someone who has not fasted due to God’s command holds no less value than the fast itself.
7. During the fasting month, we essentially abandon our former habits regarding life’s natural necessities and instead implement God’s command in their place. Fasting does not aim to make us forget food, but rather to free us from food’s dominion and place it under the command of our will. At times, even abstention is discouraged. Neither eating nor refraining from eating is valid unless done by God’s command.
8. We fulfill the necessities of life, such as eating and other needs, through our innate nature and inclination. The fasting month does not seek to remove the authority of human nature but rather to place it under the regulation of willful submission to God’s command.
9. Extensive commentary has been made regarding the health and physical benefits of fasting, which will not be repeated here. It can be said that fasting is meant to remind us of the heedlessness of our forebears (Hazrat Adam (AS) and Hawwa), and to place the entirety of human identity (even our innate nature) into obedience to divine commands, habituating us to their observance.

I pray for the success in servitude for all believers.