If a man takes fasting to mean closing his mouth to food but...

If a man takes fasting to mean closing his mouth to food but opening it for backbiting, and he engages in backbiting until sahar in the warm and friendly company in the nights when there is opportunity and time, such fasting will be of no benefit and have no effect…”[^6] Elsewhere he also says: در اين ماه شريف، كه به مهمانسراي الهي دعوت شده‏ايد، اگر به حق تعالى معرفت پيدا نكرديد يا معرفت شما زيادتر نشد، بدانيد در ضيافة اللّه درست وارد نشديد و حق ضيافت را به جا نياورديد...

“In this noble month, in which you have been invited to the divine banquet, if you do not gain insight ( ma’rifah ) about God the Almighty nor insight into yourself, it means that you have not properly participated in the feast of Allāh and failed to observe the etiquette of the feast...[^7]” Therefore our aspirations should be high, and we should struggle to attain the position which would enable us enter the Divine Feast.

In the supplication of Abū Hamzah al-Thumāli, which Imām al-Sajjād (‘a) taught to his noble companion, we are taught to pray in the following way: ...وَلَدَيْكَ أَرْجُوْ ضِيَافَتِي... “…And I aspire to be a guest near You…”[^8] Notice ‘to be a guest near Allāh’ is quite different from being just an ordinary guest.

In the above verse we seek that kind of insight and knowledge that is obtained ladā Allāh - in the neighborhood of Allāh; In simpler terms, we are not just after any kind of knowledge, but that which is Divinely inspired, which is also known as al-‘ilm al-ladunnī and is, according to the Qur’ān, a product of piety; it is not a knowledge acquired from a human tutor.

It is, using the words of the Holy Prophet (s) ‘a light that Allāh infuses in the heart of whosoever He wishes to guide.’[^9] This is the kind of knowledge, say some exegetes of the Qur’ān, that the following verse speaks about: وَاتَّقُوا اللٌّهَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ اللٌّهُ وَاللٌّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ “Be God-wary and God shall teach you, and God has knowledge of all things. ”[^10] And the path towards achieving taqwā , as clearly specified in the Holy Qur’ān, is siyām (fasting).

The Holy Qur’ān says: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَـتَّقُونَ “O you who have faith! Prescribed for you is fasting as it was prescribed for those who were before you, so that you may attain taqwā.

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