‘Id al-Fitr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Prayer on the Occasion of the End of Ramadan
“O Lord we thank Thee at the end of this month of
trial and of blessings for all that Thou have given us and also all that has
been denied us for we become aware of Thee both through Thy gifts and through
all privation which is only a reflection of Thy Transcendence. In fasting we
have worn the armor of the purity of Thy Presence against all the vicissitudes
and dispersions of the world. We have died to the world to live in Thy Will.
Our fast was not only the rejection of food and drink and even the purification
of our minds of evil thoughts. It was certainly all of these things according
to what Thou hast willed in Thy Sacred Law. But it was even more than that a
rejection of all that is other than Thee, for to fast is to put aside
everything but Thy Countenance and to live in Thy Presence. It is ultimately to
remember Thee and to invoke Thee through Thy Sacred Name.
With the help of the shroud of purity which this holy
month has made to descend upon Thy servants, we have come to see the world of
Thy Creation not as separation and veil but as signs and portents of Thy Wisdom
and Beauty. In the practice of spiritual poverty symbolized by the fast and
actualized also by it we have emptied the vessel of our humble existence of
ourselves and have been blessed to have it filled with the nectar of Thy
Presence as the cosmos was made resplendent by the descent of Thy Word, the
Holy Quran, during this month.
Now that we bid farewell to this blessed month and
join in celebrating this feast which makes us aware once again of the blessings
of life and the food which nourishes and sustains it, enable us to maintain in
the days, weeks and months that follow an element of the purity and detachment
of Ramadan. Allow us to live in the world in such a way as to be also in Thy
Presence. Endow us with the vision of creatures in their inwardness, as they
exist before Thy Majesty and as they reflect Thy Beauty and not solely in their
outward aspect as veil and separation. May we live throughout the year and in
fact all the years of our lives in Thy Sacred Name in such a way that we retain
the purity of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan along with the
celebration of the goodness and beauty of Thy creation and of Thy gifts during
this great feast, the ‘id al-fitr,
which crowns a month when we have tried to live according to Thy Will and to
perform the acts of worship Thou hast willed for us. May we always live
according to Thy Will and in Thy Sacred Name.”
(*)Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 16, No. 1
& 2 (Winter-Spring, 1984). © World Wisdom, Inc.
