God created the sun (و جعلنا سراجا وهاجا), which nourishes all life on Earth. It feeds plant life through photosynthesis, which feeds animal life, and some animals feed other animals.
God sends down the rain (و أنزلنا من المعصرات ماء ثجاجا), which nourishes all life as well. From it, life was created and through it life is sustained.
God created sex (و خلقناكم أزواجا), through which animal life reproduces itself. Animals are irresistibly drawn to one another, perpetuating our presence on planet Earth. Without sex, all animal life would cease to exist after some years.
So before the sun rises each day in the month of Ramadan, we pause to acknowledge that we are part of the entire biological system through which all life on Earth has emerged and is sustained. Unlike any other creature on this planet, we voluntarily choose to neither drink the water that was sent down, nor eat the plants or animals whose existence is made possible by the sun’s rays, nor engage in sex for the perpetuation of our species as long as the sun is shining down on the location of our bodies on Earth. We remove ourselves, through the power of our intention (نية) from the fundamental system of biological life that has made every aspect of human civilization possible, and sustains every aspect of life on our planet.
And we offer that abstention to the Creator and Planner of it all, as if we are demonstrating with our actions that our life and our children’s lives do not matter more to us than worship (عبادة) of Life Itself (الحي) and gratitude (شكر) to the Giver of Life (المحيي).
And so through that reflection (تدبّر) we can see why the hadīth qudsī narrated in both Shī’ī and Sunnī narrations states:
“The fast is for Me and I alone will provide the reward for it (الصوم لي و أنا أجزي به).”
For we are voluntarily and symbolically letting go of the foundations of life in this lower world (دنيا) that God has created for our bodies, for the sake of our life in the world that God has promised us comes next (الآخرة).
And our Lord is so Merciful that once the sun is gone, we can have it all again. For by this our Lord does not intend to put us through hardship (يريد الله بكم اليسر و لا يريد بكم العسر) but rather to give us beyond reckoning (لإن شكرتم لأزيدنكم).
The month of Ramadan is about the meaning of the totality of life on planet Earth.
A Mercy Case 