By Imam Murtadha Gusau
Respected servants of Allah!In at the moment’s sermon, I wish to share with you the nice sermon, which our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) delivered on the final Friday of Sha’aban.
The sermon of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) is concise; informative and academic. It supplies tutorial fashions to Muslims to be adopted and to be practiced in their every day lives; particularly throughout the month of Ramadan. Hopefully, it should develop in us a higher understanding behind the true that means of Ramadan.
Dear brothers and sisters! Imams Ibn Khuzaimah, Ibn Hibban, and al-Baihaqi reported on the authority of Salman al-Farisi (RA) that the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) delivered a sermon on the final day of the month of Sha’aban, in which he (Peace be upon him) mentioned:
“O People! An incredible and blessed month has arrived for you with its mercies, blessings and forgiveness. Allah has decreed this month to be the greatest of all months. The days of this month are the greatest amongst the days and the nights are the greatest amongst the nights and its hours are the greatest amongst the hours. It is the month which invitations you to be the friends of Allah and invitations you to be one of these close to to Him. Allah has honoured you in it. In each breath you are taking is a reward of Allah. Your sleep is worship. Your good deeds are accepted and your invocations are answered.
Therefore, you will need to invoke your Lord in all earnestness with hearts free from sin and evil, and pray that Allah might enable you to to maintain quick, and to recite the noble Qur’an.
Indeed! Miserable is the one who’s disadvantaged of Allah’s forgiveness in this nice month. While fasting, bear in mind the starvation and thirst o n the Day of Judgment. Give alms to the poor and needy. Pay respect to your elders, have sympathy in your children and be form in the direction of your family members. Guard your tongue in opposition to unworthy phrases, and your eyes from scenes that aren’t value seeing and your ears from sounds that shouldn’t be heard.
Be form to orphans in order that in case your kids might develop into orphans they will even be handled with kindness. Do repent to Allah in your sins and supplicate with raised fingers at the instances of prayer as these are the greatest instances, throughout which Allah Almighty seems to be at His servants with mercy. Allah Answers in the event that they supplicate, Responds in the event that they name, grants if He is requested, and accepts in the event that they plead. O folks! You have made your conscience the servant of your needs. Make it free by invoking Allah for forgiveness.
Your again might break from the heavy load of your sins, so prostrate your self earlier than Allah for lengthy intervals, and make this load lighter. Understand absolutely that Allah has promised in His Honour and Majesty that, individuals who carry out Salah (Prayer) and Sajdah (Prostration) can be guarded from Hellfire o n the Day of Judgment. O folks!
If anybody amongst you arranges for iftar meal for any believer, Allah will reward him as if he had freed a slave, and Allah will forgive him his sins. A companion requested: “But not all of us have the means to take action.” The Prophet (Peace be upon him) replied:
“Keep your self away from Hellfire although it could consist of half a date and even some water when you’ve got nothing else. O folks! Anyone who throughout this month cultivates good manners will stroll over the Sirat (bridge to Paradise) o n the day when toes will have a tendency to slide. For anybody who throughout this month eases the workload of his servants, Allah will make straightforward his accounting, and for anybody who doesn’t harm others throughout this month, Allah will safeguard him from His wrath o n the Day of Judgment. Anyone who respects and treats an orphan with kindness throughout this month, Allah shall take a look at him with kindness o n that Day. Anyone who treats his kinsmen effectively throughout this month, Allah will bestow His Mercy o n him o n that Day, whereas anybody who mistreats his kinsmen throughout this month, Allah will maintain him away from His Mercy.
Whoever provides the advisable prayers throughout this month, Allah will save him from Hell, and whoever observes his obligations throughout this month, his reward can be seventy instances the reward throughout different months. Whoever repeatedly invokes Allah’s blessings o n me, Allah will maintain his scale of good deeds heavy, whereas the scales of others can be tending to lightness. O folks! The gates of Paradise stay open throughout this month. Pray to your Lord that they might not be closed for you.
The gates of Hell are closed, so pray to your Lord that they by no means open for you. Shaitan (Satan) has been chained; so ask your Lord to not let him have energy over you. Ali Ibn Talib (RA) mentioned: “I requested, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what are the greatest deeds throughout this month’?” ‘He replied: ‘O Abu-Hasan, the greatest of deeds throughout this month is to be removed from what Allah has forbidden’.”
Respected brothers and sisters! Please, we should always replicate upon this Prophetic sermon. With Ramadan providing such distinctive alternative to earn Allah’s pleasure, what extra can we ask for and what might be mentioned about us if we didn’t make use of this chance? It is unusual however true that there are amongst Muslims, completely different teams of individuals who have completely different attitudes towards Ramadan.
There are those that see Ramadan as a time of restrictions and prevention; a time of prohibitions from needs and lust. They don’t comprehend the advantages of Ramadan. They quick with nice issue and proceed to interact in backbiting, slandering, mendacity and different sins. They see fasting in Ramadan as nothing greater than an impediment in the method of their needs.
There are others who know nothing of Ramadan besides that it’s compulsory. Neither the days nor the nights are spent in worship; relatively they may not even carry out the 5 every day prayers. They awaken with Allah’s displeasure and sleep with Allah’s displeasure.
Then there are those that limit their worship and good deeds solely to the month of Ramadan. They attend the Jumu’ah prayer, frequent the Mosque, and spend in charity. But when the month is over all of these good deeds come to finish, till the subsequent Ramadan.
There are those that can not anticipate the arrival of Ramadan.
And when it comes they roll up their sleeves and so they work as arduous as they will. This month rejuvenates and strengthens them. Without being judgmental in the direction of others, allow us to consider ourselves. Which group will we belong to? I pray, May Allah Almighty make us amongst those that take full alternative of this blessed month, ameen.
According to a Hadith Qudsi, Allah Almighty says:“Every single motion of the son of Adam is for himself besides fasting. Indeed, it’s for me, and I’ll give reward for it.”
The students of Hadith say that there are two interpretations of this Hadith: The first interpretation is that if now we have wronged folks and didn’t search their forgiveness in this world, they will come on the Day of Judgment and take our rewards of good deeds—from our Salah, from our Zakah, from different good deeds, however they won’t be able to take from our fasting. The second interpretation is that each time we do a great deed, its reward is multiplied by ten instances as Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an:
“Whoever involves Allah with a great deed can have ten instances as a lot.” [Surah al-An’am, 6:160]
But there is no such thing as a calculation or restrict with respect to the rewards of fasting. So, after listening to this Hadith, we ought to be motivated to do as many good deeds as attainable throughout the month of Ramadan.
While fasting has quite a few virtues and advantages, the major motivation of fasting ought to be solely to hunt Allah’s pleasure and to achieve Taqwa or Allah-consciousness in order that we could possibly save ourselves from hurt, and the best hurt is to be unsuccessful in the hereafter.
In a well-known Hadith the prophet (Peace be upon him) had highlighted the situations for fasting to be accepted by saying:
“Whoever fasts Ramadan out of religion and in the hope of reward, his earlier sins can be forgiven.”
“Out of religion” in this context refers to making sure that your worship is solely for Allah Almighty. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) mentioned:
“Allah doesn’t settle for any deed besides that which is finished just for Him and to hunt His pleasure.”
Another situation for fasts to be accepted is the hope of reward. It is troublesome to hope and need for one thing with out recognising its worth. So, if we recognise the worth of fasting and the related rewards, then we should always really feel the eagerness in our hearts for our fasts and worships to be accepted. If the month-long worship and Ibadah fail to overwhelm us spiritually, then it’s time to right our intentions and recognise the worth of fasting earlier than we lose that chance.
Let’s due to this fact make sure that all our acts of worshipduring Ramadan are honest, with our hearts engaged to the fullest. It would certainly be an enormous loss if we solely earned starvation, thirst, and sleeplessness from our actions at the finish of the month.
We ought to realise that good deeds and unhealthy deeds are the primary currencies that can determine our destiny in this life and the hereafter. Let’s due to this fact direct all our efforts to earn as many rewards as attainable and to keep away from sins.
Dear brothers and sisters! The virtues and greatness of Ramadan ought to by no means be underestimated.
Mu’az Ibn Jabal reported that: The Prophet (Peace be upon him) mentioned:“Allah seems to be down at His creation on the center evening of Sha’aban and He forgives all of His creatures, aside from an idolater or one harbouring malice.”
Sha’aban is a month of getting ready for Ramadan. As we anticipate the month of forgiveness from Allah, we should always look inward to evaluate our emotions in the direction of others.
The perfume of the blessed month of Ramadan is already in the air and virtually everybody has began feeling the slight sensation of pleasure that this blessed month brings with it.
I pray to Allah Almighty to make us amongst those that are in a position to take benefit of the alternatives offered to us in the month of Ramadan; to make us amongst the folks of Taqwah, to simply accept our good deeds, to forgive us, to maintain us secure and absolutely protected against the Hellfire and to make us all enter into Jannah (Paradise), ameen.
May Allah ship His Salah and Salam upon our noble Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
And all praises and thanks are as a result of Allah alone, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his household, his Companions and his true and honest followers.
And I pray, May Allah grant us the alternative to witness this coming month of Ramadan in good well being, ameen.
Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumu’ah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene’s Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He will be reached through: [email protected] or +2348038289761.
This Jumu’ah Khutbah (Friday sermon) was ready for, supply at the moment, Friday, Sha’aban 26, 1442 AH (April 09, 2021).
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