The Feast of Light — Spiritual Nutrition
Saturday, 28 February 2026
God did not set this month aside to starve you — He set it aside to feed you. In the Sha'baniyyah Sermon, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, tells the community they have been invited to "the Banquet of God" and made "of the people of God's karamah" — the dignity spoken of when the Qur'an says God ennobled the children of Adam. That dignity, the session argues, is what the month restores: not a reward for suffering, but a homecoming to a station given away one heedless act at a time. If that is the banquet, what is on the table? Imam Khomeini answers in Adab as-Salat: the soul, like the body, has a food, and its food is ma'rifah — direct, experiential knowledge of God, not information about Him. Hunger quiets the body's noise so the soul's appetite can be heard. But even this food can go in without nourishing: worship performed with takalluf, forced and resentful, does not digest. The table is set and the food is real — so why do most of us stop at the bread basket by the door? What the evening covers The invitation you missed. The Sha'baniyyah Sermon's claim that Ramadhan restores karamah, the original dignity of Adam's children. The soul has a food. Imam Khomeini's teaching that ma'rifah nourishes the spirit as bread nourishes the body, and can only be tasted. Eating with a clenched jaw. The narration warning against making worship hateful to yourself. The transparency of a Prophet. Imam Ali, peace be upon him, on Prophet Moses, peace be upon him: so emptied of the world that the green of the herbs he ate showed through his skin.
In this session
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِهِ، وَادْرَأْ عَنِّي بِلُطْفِكَ، وَاغْذُنِي بِنِعْمَتِكَ، وَأَصْلِحْنِي بِكَرَمِكَ، وَدَاوِنِي بِصُنْعِكَ، وَأَظِلَّنِي فِي ذَرَاكَ، وَجَلِّلْنِي رِضَاكَ، وَوَفِّقْنِي إِذَا اشْتَكَلَتْ عَلَيَّ الْأُمُورُ لِأَهْدَاهَا، وَإِذَا تَشَابَهَتِ الْأَعْمَالُ لِأَزْكَاهَا، وَإِذَا تَنَاقَضَتِ الْمِلَلُ لِأَرْضَاهَا
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, repel from me through Your gentleness, feed me through Your favour, set me right through Your generosity, heal me through Your benefaction, shade me in Your shelter, wrap me in Your good pleasure, and give me success to reach the most guided of affairs when affairs confuse me, the purest of works when works seem similar, and the most pleasing to You of creeds when creeds conflict!
Sahifa Sajjadiyyah, Prayer 20: His Supplication on Noble Moral Traits and Acts Pleasing to God, Verse 22
