Ramadan 4 – Deeds in
Ramadan
In the name of Allah
Most Gracious most merciful.
Peace and prayers be
upon the most honorable messenger.
I recommend to you and
to myself to fear Allah. He says: {Ye believers, fear Allah as He ought to be
feared, and only die as Muslims} 3-102.
For days pass as clouds
do and years come to end pretty quickly. We often forget to thinking and
reflecting. Allah says: {It is He who made the night and the day successions
for whoever wishes to remember or wants to be thankful} Forqan-62.
The Muslim in his/her
short life and numbered days is compensated by Allah with seasons of goodness.
Allah also gave the Muslim the honor of the time and place in order to fix and
put right the wrongful part of his/her life. One of those seasons is the month
of holy Ramadan. Allah says: {you who believe, fasting has been written upon
you; just as it was written upon those before you. So you may fear} 2-183
One of the factors
affecting the happiness of a one's self is the return of good times and good
days. Allah has graced his slaves with a whole month of mercies and goodness.
Here are the days of this month quickly pass and in each day a caller calls:
you, who wants goodness, come. Satans are tied up, and the doors to hell are
closed, and the doors to mercy and forgiveness are wide open.
During Ramadan the force
of desires is lightened, and the hands are raised up to Allah, one asks for a
slip to be forgotten, and another asks for his fidelity to be successful.
Another is asking to be helped with his/her punishment, and a forth asks for
the best reward. A fifth was kept busy through speaking of Allah's from asking
Him. Praise be to Allah who guided them to this and others are not as
successful. The fruits and results of fasting are graces that are so many that
can not be counted nor accounted for by a lazy, distracted individual who
spends his month sleeping at day and killing time at night.
Fasting is a shield from
hell fire. The messenger (PPBU) said: {Fasting is a shield the slave uses to
shield him/her self from fire}. Fasting is also a shield from desires. The
messenger (PPBU) said: {All you youth, this who can afford marriage let them
get married. And if you can't let them fast for fasting renews fear}. Fasting
is also a route to paradise. Abi-Aumamah asked the messenger (PPBU):
"Messenger of Allah, tell me something because of it, Allah will benefit me",
The messenger (PPBU) said: {take up fasting, there is nothing like it}. The
messenger also said: {Paradise has a door is called Rayanne (the word means
the well watered one, or the opposite of thirsty), only those who fast will
enter through it. After they enter it is closed and no one else can use it to
enter paradise.
The messenger PPBU said:
{fasting and the Quran intermediate for the individual on the day of
resurrection. Fasting says: My Lord, I held him/her off food and desires
during the day, let me mediate for him/her. And the Koran says: I held him/her
from sleep at night; let me mediate on his/her behalf. The messenger said: and
their mediation is accepted}.
The messenger said:
{whoever fasts in faith and expectation, his/her past sins are forgiven}. The
messenger also said: {whoever fasts has two delights. They are delightfulness
during breaking of the fast, and the delightfulness when meeting his Lord. And
the smell of the mouth of a fasting person is better with Allah than the scent
of the Musk}
With all those mercies
in fasting, then a Muslim ought to take as much of such mercies as possible.
So, the Muslim will have better chance in clearing his/her sins, and achieving
the pardon from Hell fire. There is no excuse for not achieving such goals.
For those who work for that, this is the time to do more and enjoy it more.
And for those who have not been paying attention to this matter, this is the
time to wake up. How wonderful it is to apostrophize to Allah at early dawn;
and how quick prayers at fast breaking times are answered. How wonderful are
those times of fasting, staying up the nights, supplications and asking for
forgiveness. Those who suffer the hunger and thirst during fasting in this
life, on the day of resurrection they are told: {Ear and drink wholesome, for
what you did in days gone by}.
Dear brothers and
sisters, take the opportunity of Ramadan to make a true repentance. Repenting
is not limited to Ramadan, but during Ramadan repentance is certain. And who
knows? You may be reborn again in the month of Ramadan. A person can be born
twice: one, is when he comes out of the darkness of the womb to the light of
this life, and the second when he comes out of the darkness of disobedience to
the light of obedience. And what a delight it is for the heart to come back to
its Lord repentant, regretful and remorseful, and rejoins the good people.
Ramadan is a chance to
put life into one's heart, wake it up from its sleep and feed it with the God
fearing sensation. For fear of Allah is an aim of all worships. Ramadan is an
occasion to strengthen ties with Allah and break ties with this worldly life.
Staying up at nights in worship is one of the means to put life into a heart.
The messenger said: {take up staying up at nights; it was the custom of the
good people before you, and it is a way of getting closer to your Lord, and it
is a way to compensate and clear sins, and a deterrent from doing misdeed}.
Staying up at nights in
worship implants faith into the heart. When one stays with Allah alone, and
the heart makes that contact with Allah, the heart becomes purified and gains
goodness.
Ramadan is the month of
the Koran. It is a great mean of enlightenment and guidance of the heart.
Allah says: {"A blessed book we brought down upon you, to think and reflect on
to its miracles or verses"}. Have we given thoughts and time to the Koran? And
its verses? Did that change anything with in us? Where is its effect in our
behaviour, our families and homes?
Koran recitation is a
multi organ task where the tongue, the mind, the heart all take part. The
tongue has the job of pronunciation, and the mind has the job of interpreting
and fathoming the meaning, the heart has the job of picking up the lesson and
be effected.
Allah says: {Take from
their monies a charity to purify and cleanses them} Tawba-103. For the one who
benefits most from giving a charity is the donor him/her self. Because it reds
them from being stingy, clears them from sins. Continuous donations to charity
also reds the heart from love for money.
Charity has benefits in
this life and in the life after. With charity the sick can be treated, and it
guards against the afflictions and against bad aimed at a person. It makes
daily life matters easier, it brings more money, it turns off the anger of
God, and it removes the effects of sins, and it shades the donor on the Day of
Judgment, it hides him from the fire, and fights off the torment.
Charity has a
relationship with going towards Allah. Allah says: {bring the ken their
rights, and the destitute, the one which is on the road, that is better to
those who seek Allah's face} Room-38.
For charity to give its
fruits it need to be continuous. Allah says: {Those who spend their money by
night and by day, in secrecy and in public, their rewards are with their Lord,
and there is no worry about them and they need never be saddened} 2-274.
Dear brothers, remember
and speak of Allah. Allah says: {This who remember and speak of Allah and this
that does not is like one who is alive and one who is dead}.
For remember and
speaking of Allah to be useful and in order to connect between the tongue and
the heart it must be connected with the worship of reflection and thinking.
Allah says: {in the creation of heavens and earth, and the difference in night
and day are miracles for those with brains. Those who remember and speak of
Allah when standing, sitting and on their sides, and they reflect in the
creation of the heavens and earth, Our Lord, you did not create all this in
vain, Praise be to you. Protect us against the torment of fire} 3-190/191.
Slaves of Allah, pray
upon the messenger, for Allah ordered us to do so when He says: {Allah and his
angels pray upon the prophet, You believers, pray upon him and give him
greetings for peace} Ahzab-56.
Dear Allah, bless us
with the great Koran, and may He make us benefit with its verses and miracles.
And forgive our sins. Ask your God for forgiveness, He is the most forgiving,
the most merciful.
