Ritual acts of worship, as fasting, are deemed invalid, and are not accepted unless we act correctly. Thus:
Fasting and Perjury:
“Whoever does not abandon false speech and acting by it; then Allah is not in need of him abandoning his food and drink.”
“How much of the fasting is not from his fast, except hunger and thirst.”
(Narrated by Abu Hurayra)
Verily, the fast of common people is to abandon food and drink, ant the fast of believers is to abandon sins and wrongdoings, while the fast of righteous worshipers is to abandon everything except Allah.
“All the works of Adam are for him, but fasting is for Me and I shall reward him for it.”
(Al-Baqarah, 2:183)
Piety:
“Piety”, broadly speaking, means obedience to Allah. Actually, when you ask Allah His forgiveness, repent to Him and perform righteous deeds, you are close to Allah during your salah. Then, what are the results of this salah? It is that Allah Almighty will cast a light in your heart that shows you the righteous things as righteous and the wrong things as wrong.
“O you who believe! Fear Allah, and believe in His Messenger, and He will give you a double portion of His Mercy, and He will give you a light by which you shall walk (straight). “
(Al-Hadid, 57: 28)
This light shows you the righteous things as righteous and the wrong things as wrong. Verily, this light is piety.
“O you who believe! Observing as-saum (fast) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become al-muttaqun (those who fear and practise self-restraint).”
(Al-Baqarah, 2:183)
Piety, as it was defined by Imam al-Ghazzali, may Allah Almighty grant mercy upon his soul, is: “A light that Allah casts in your heart.” It shows you good and evil as they are. In fact, in regard to those people who commit sins and wrongdoings, what did they see before they committed them? They saw them as achievement and pleasure. So whoever disobeys Allah has a wrong vision (a false perception) and there is blindness in his heart. Allah the Almighty says:
“But whosever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narrowed down, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment. He will say: O my Lord, why have You raised me up blind, while I had sight (before)? (Allah) will say: Thus did you…”
(Taha, 20: 124-126)
Which means: thus you were blind (to the truth) in the worldly life, because:
“Verily, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but the hearts which are in their breast.”
(Al-Hajj, 22:46)
Verily, just when you are away from Allah (when you disobey Him), you will lose that light; you see the good as evil, and the evil as good. You will see spending on sadaqah as foolishness; stinginess as prudence, satisfying illicit lusts as intelligence, and
avoiding them as stupidity.
Therefore, in order to see good and bad as such, Allah obliged us to fast in the month of Ramadan.
“O you who believe! Observing as-saum (fast) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become al-muttaqun (those who fear and practise self-restraint).”
(Al-Baqarah, 2:183)
“(Observing saum) for a fixed number of days…”
(Al-Baqarah, 2: 184)
