Wednesday, 27 July 2011
The month of Ramadhaan is a blessing for which Muslims await throughout the year. Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) referred to this month as “The Month of My Ummah” and it is no doubt a month in which the Ummah can take advantage of the innumerable blessings, both spiritual and worldly. Hereunder is a discussion of some of the excellent qualities of the month of Ramadhaan, as told to us by our Beloved Master Muhammad Mustafa (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam). Insha Allaah it would inspire us to perform as many good deeds as we can during this sacred month.
Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) once delivered a sermon on the last day of Shabaan and said the following from his blessed lips: “O people! A mighty month has cast its protective shade to screen you. A blessed month, a month in which there is a night that is better than a thousand months! Allaah has made keeping fast therein an obligatory duty and the observance of night vigil therein a voluntary practice. If someone seeks to draw near to Allaah therein by setting just one example of good conduct, or performs just one religious obligation, that person will be exactly the same as someone who discharges seventy religious obligations during all the other months of the year. It is the month of patient endurance, the reward of which is paradise. It is the month of charitable sharing and it is the month in which the sustenance of the true believer is increased. So if someone provides a meal for a person who is keeping the fast, this will result in forgiveness for his sins, and in his emancipation from hell. The benefactor will also be granted a reward equivalent to that earned by the recipient of his generosity, without any reward being reduced from the former.” Some of those that were present said that not all of them had the capacity to provide a meal to a fasting person, to which Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) replied: “Allaah will grant this reward to anyone who gives some kind of nourishment to a fasting person, even if it is merely a dried date, a drink of water or a cup of diluted milk. It is a month, the beginning of which is a mercy, the middle of which is forgiveness, and the last part of which is a deliverance from the fire of hell. During the course of this month you must therefore cultivate four practices and repeat them frequently. Two of these are practices by which you will earn Allaahu Tha'alaa’s pleasure, while the other two are practices that you simply cannot afford to do without. As for the two practices that will earn you Almighty Allaah’s pleasure, they are testifying that there is no God except Allaah (La Ilaaha IllAllaah) and begging Him for forgiveness. As for the two that you simply cannot afford to do without, they are imploring Allaah to grant you the Garden of Paradise and taking refuge with Him from the Fire of Hell. Furthermore, if someone provides a satisfying meal in the course of this month for a fasting person, Allaahu Tha'alaa will grant the benefactor a drink from my Fountain, after which he will never feel thirsty again.”
Hazrath Abu Hurairah (Radhiyallaahu 'Anh) narrates that Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) said, “As soon as Ramadhaan comes around, the gates of the Garden of Paradise are flung open, the gates of the Fire of Hell are shut and locked, and the devils (shayateen) are shackled and tied up tight.”
Once, the Beloved Rasool (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) said, “If the servants of Allaah only knew what the month of Ramadhaan contains, those servants of His would dearly wish that the month of Ramadhaan could be a whole year!” On hearing this, someone asked Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) to tell them about this month, to which he responded, by saying: “The Garden of Paradise will surely be adorned for the sake of the month of Ramadhaan, from the beginning of the year through the whole of the intervening period. Then, as soon as the first night of the month of Ramadhaan has arrived, a wind will blow from beneath the Heavenly Throne (Arsh), causing the leaves of the trees of the Garden of Paradise to be set in a state of commotion. The brides of Paradise, those maidens with such lovely eyes, will regard this as a good omen, so they will say, “O Lord, grant us from among Your male servants in this month, such husbands that our eyes will be soothed by them, and their eyes will be soothed by us.” No servant of Allaahu Tha'alaa, who keeps the fast through the month of Ramadhaan, can possibly fail to be married to a wife from among the brides of Paradise, those maidens with such lovely eyes. The wedding will take place inside a pavilion made from a single hollowed pearl. This fits the description given by Allaahu Tha'alaa: “There are houris, (Virgins of Paradise) confined in tents.” [Surah 55, Verse 72]
Every woman amongst them will be dressed in seventy fine articles of clothing, no item being the same as any other. She will be given seventy kinds of perfume, none with the same fragrance as any other. She will also be given seventy throne-like raised couches, made from red rubies and studded with pearls. Upon each of these couches there will be seventy cushions, the lining of which will consist of thick silk brocade interwoven with gold, and over every cushion there will be seventy canopies. Every woman amongst them will have seventy thousand pageboys to attend to her own needs, as well as seventy thousand maidservants to attend to the needs of her husband. Each of these maidservants will carry a dish made of gold, containing some kind of cooked food, the last morsel of which will be found to have a delicious flavour that went unnoticed in the first bite. Her husband will be given special treats like this, as he reclines upon a couch made from a single red ruby, wearing two bracelets of gold inlaid with sapphires. Such will be the reward for one who has kept the fast through the month of Ramadhaan, quite apart from what he might have earned by performing charitable deeds!” SubhaanAllaah!
On another occasion Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) said, “The members of my Ummah will not be put to shame, so long as they observe the night vigil during the month of Ramadhaan.” On hearing this, someone asked what resulted in their being put to shame, to which Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) replied: “If someone is guilty, during the month of Ramadhaan, of violating a sacred ordinance, of committing an evil deed, of drinking intoxicating liquor, or of committing adultery or fornication, his fasting in Ramadhaan will not be accepted of him. Allaahu Tha'alaa and His angels and all those who dwell in the heavens will curse him, and the curse will remain in effect until the same point in time the following year. If he happens to die in the interval before the next Ramadhaan comes around, he will die without having even one good deed to his credit in the sight of Allaah.”
Therefore we must be very careful of committing any sin during this month, as there is a fear that we might be punished by not having our fasting accepted, and by being cursed by Allaahu Tha'alaa and His angels. Furthermore, the shayateen are chained during this month, so we have absolutely no excuse for committing any sin; if we do, we only have our own nafs to blame.
Rasoolullaahi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) has mentioned many other excellences of the blessed month of Ramadhaan in the Ahadith, a few of which are quoted below:
- “If someone keeps the fast on the first day of the month of Ramadhaan, Allaah will forgive him every sin until the last day of Ramadhaan, and his fasting will be an expiation until the same point in time. For every day on which he keeps the fast, he will be granted a palatial mansion in Paradise, equipped with a thousand doors made of gold. From early in the morning, seventy thousand angels will beg for forgiveness on his behalf, and for every act of prostration he performs by night or by day, he will be granted a tree in Paradise, a tree in the shade of which a rider can travel for one hundred years without ever passing beyond it.”
- “On each and every night of the month of Ramadhaan, Allaahu Tha'alaa will say three times, “Does anyone have a request to make, so that I may grant his request? Is there anyone who wishes to repent, so that I may relent towards him and accept his repentance? Is there anyone wishing to seek forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?””
- “On each and every day of the month of Ramadhaan, by the time when the fast is duly broken, Allaahu Tha'alaa will have delivered a million of His servants from the Fire of Hell, even though all of them had incurred the penalty of damnation. Moreover, when the night of the Day of Congregation (Jumma) comes around, and on the Day of Jumma itself, it will be during every single hour that Allaahu Tha'alaa delivers a million of His servants from the Fire of Hell, even though all of them had incurred the penalty of damnation. As for what will happen on the last day of the month of Ramadhaan, on that day Allaahu Tha'alaa will deliver a number equal to the total of all those he has delivered from the Fire of Hell between the first of the month and the last.”
- “Throughout the entire month of Ramadhaan, Allaahu Tha'alaa will go on issuing this call, “My servants, men and women alike! Be of good cheer, be patient, and steadily persevere! I am about to grant you relief from your trouble and pain, and you will shortly attain My Mercy and My Generous Favour.”
- “If Allaahu Tha'alaa were ever to allow the heavens and the earth to speak, they would surely greet those who keep the fast of Ramadhaan, hailing them with glad tidings of the Garden of Paradise.”
- “As soon as the first night of the month of Ramadhaan has arrived, the All Majestic One will summon Ridwan, the keeper of the Garden of Paradise. The ever-obedient Ridwan will present himself at once, saying, “I wait intent upon Your service, time and time again, and upon aiding Your cause, time and time again!” Allaahu Tha'alaa will then tell him, “You must refurnish and redecorate My Garden of Paradise for the sake of those members of the community (Ummah) of Ahmad (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) who are keeping the fast.”
Next, He will summon Malik, the keeper of the Fire of Hell, with the call, “O Malik!” The ever-obedient Malik will present himself at once, saying, “I wait intent upon Your service, time and time again, and upon aiding Your cause, time and time again!” Allaahu Tha'alaa will then tell him, “Shut the doors of the blazing Fire of Hell, so as to lock out those members of the community of Ahmad (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) who are keeping the fast. Then do not reopen those doors to them until they have completed their month of fasting.”
At this point He will summon Jibra’eel, who will present himself at once, saying, “I wait intent upon Your service, time and time again, and upon aiding Your cause, time and time again!” Allaahu Tha'alaa will then tell him, “You must go down to the earth below, in order to shackle the defiant and rebellious devils, so that they cannot meddle with the community of Ahmad (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam), and spoil their experience of fasting and breaking fast.””
- “The sleep of one who keeps the fast is an act of worshipful service, his silence is a declaration of the Glory of the Lord, his prayer of supplication is sure to be accepted, and the merit of every good deed he performs is sure to be multiplied.”
- “If someone keeps the fast and observes the night in vigil during Ramadhaan, as a matter of faith and in anticipation of Allaah’s favour in the hereafter, but with no expectation of worldly reward, he will be forgiven his earlier sins, as well as those he committed recently.”
- “For every good deed or practice performed by a human being belonging to my Ummah, the merit will be multiplied at least ten times, and up to seven hundred times in some cases. The sole exception is the fast, for Allaahu Tha'alaa has told us, “The fast belongs to Me, and I provide its recompense. When someone keeps the fast he is abstaining from his carnal desire, his eating and drinking, for My sake.” The fast is a suit of armour. Moreover, two occasions of joy are in store for the person who is keeping the fast; joy at the moment of breaking the fast and joy at the moment of meeting his Lord.”
SubhaanAllaah! Just by us being the Ummah of the Beloved Rasool (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam), Allaahu Tha'alaa has so much of Mercy on us. Furthermore, Allaahu Tha'alaa loves us so much that He just finds an excuse to shower His Infinite Mercy upon us. SubhaanAllaah! May we die in the slavery of Allaah and His Beloved Rasool (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam).
It is narrated by Hazrath Abul Barakaat (Radhiyallaahu 'Anh) that if someone, while performing voluntary worship at night during the month of Ramadhaan, recites the words addressed by Allaahu Tha'alaa to His Beloved Messenger (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) – “Undoubtedly, We have granted you a clear victory” [Surah 48, Verse 1] – that person will receive a guarantee of safekeeping for the whole of that year.
