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The month of Ramadaan is a blessing for which Muslims await throughout the year. Rasoolullah (Sallallahu 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 Ramadaan, as told to us by our Beloved Master Muhammad Mustafa (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam). Insha Allah it would inspire us to perform as many good deeds as we can during this sacred month.
Rasoolullah (Sallallahu 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! Allah 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 Allah 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 Rasoolullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) replied:
“Allah 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 Allah Ta’ala’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 Allah’s pleasure, they are testifying that there is no God except Allah (Laa Ilaaha Illallah) and begging Him for forgiveness. As for the two that you simply cannot afford to do without, they are imploring Allah 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, Allah Ta’ala will grant the benefactor a drink from my Fountain, after which he will never feel thirsty again.”
Once, the Beloved Rasool (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said, “If the servants of Allah only knew what the month of Ramadaan contains, those servants of His would dearly wish that the month of Ramadaan could be a whole year!”
On hearing this, someone asked Rasoolullah (Sallallahu 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 Ramadaan, from the beginning of the year through the whole of the intervening period. Then, as soon as the first night of the month of Ramadaan 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 Allah Ta’ala, who keeps the fast through the month of Ramadaan, 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 Allah Ta’ala: “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 Ramadaan, quite apart from what he might have earned by performing charitable deeds!” SubhanAllah!
On another occasion Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallahu 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 Ramadaan.”
On hearing this, someone asked what resulted in their being put to shame, to which Rasoolullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) replied:
“If someone is guilty, during the month of Ramadaan, of violating a sacred ordinance, of committing an evil deed, of drinking intoxicating liquor, or of committing adultery or fornication, his fasting in Ramadaan will not be accepted of him. Allah Ta’ala 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 Ramadaan comes around, he will die without having even one good deed to his credit in the sight of Allah.”
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 Allah Ta’ala and His angels.
May Allah Ta’ala grant us the Taufeeq and Hidayat to take full advantage of the innumerable blessings in the blessed month of Ramadaan, to make as much Ibaadat as possible, and to stay away from anything that might lead to His displeasure, Ameen.
[Compiled from Ghunyalit Taalibi Tareeqal Haq by Huzoor Sayyiduna Ghaus-e-Azam Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani Radiallahu Ta’ala Anh]
