SHAFAQNA – His talk was in the Foundation of the Awaited Imam (Peace be upon him) in Malmou City in Sweden in the presence of a great number of believers, quoting at the beginning of his address the prophet’s ( May Allah bless him) sermon, (Oh people, the month of Allah has come with the blessing, compassion and forgiveness. A month to Allah is the best of all months, its days are the best days, its nights are the best nights, its hours are the best hours; it is a month you have been asked to receive Allah’s hospitality, you have been given Allah’s prestige, your breaths in it glorify, your sleep is worshipping, your deed is acceptable and your supplication during it is received and answered with acceptance by Him.)
We are at the doors of the blessed month of Ramadhan, the month of forgiveness and compassion, the month of generosity and blessing.
it is important for us, before the arrival of this great month, we prepare ourselves to welcome it. So, what is the required preparation? Is it to make available the big bags of food, drinks or the decoration of the houses, or preparing relaxation programs until the time before the daybreak or the long hour of sleep during the day…etc. Or there are other issues that we must take care of in order to receive this blessed month. So, what are these issues? Here are some of them:
1-We get ready by purifying ourselves from guilt and sins because we are Allah’s quests during this month as His messenger ( May Allah bless him) said: ( A month you have been called to be Allah’s guests and you were made from people of Allah’s magnanimity..) Have we purified our hearts and souls for standing in front of Allah,the Glorified, the Exalted, and we have fulfilled Allah’s duties and duties of his creations, and we have repented to Him from all types of misdeed because the doors of repentance, sympathy and return’s to Allah are wide open for his creation during this blessed month to succeed completely for this reception of Allah and not to be of the damned ones according to the prophet’s say ( May Allah bleed him), (The damned one is the one who has been prohibited from Allah’s forgiveness.)
2-Get ready to settle the grievances and rights because neither the supplication of the oppressor nor the supplication of one who has confiscated the rights of others will be answered. Therefore, we have ask for forgiveness from those whom we have oppressed because if the oppressed invokes Allah, his call will be answered. Allah listen to those whose rights were confiscated. Therefore, we have to ask for forgiveness before the arrival of this month in order to avoid the arrows of their supplications whereafter Allah will not listen to our supplications. And, if we do not do this, opponents at the day of judgement would hold to all things and ask for their rights until the person’s scale remains empty from any good deeds and his scale would remain heavy with the grievances of others because people who have the rights have already taken their rights from that person. And, if he has lost all his good deeds then from their misdeeds and grievances would be taken and put in his scale. Therefore, it is required from us that before the arrival of this month we have to settle all these rights and grievances in order to be ready, before the arrival of the month for our supplication, to be accepted and for he divine forgiveness.
3- Prepare ourselves for receiving the month of Ramadhan by cleaning our relations with our brethren because the supplication of the hearts that full of hatred and quarrel would not be answered.It was quoted that Allah’s messenger (May Allah bless him) said (Oh people, do not feel jealous against each other, do not cut your relations, do not turn your backs to each other and do not hate each other but Allah’s servants be brothers,) because the believing soul does not experience hatred or jealousy because jealousy devours the good deeds as fire devours wood and, therefore, we must amend our relations with each other so when the month of Ramadhan arrives every thing has been sorted out because the supplications of those who have abandoned each other would not be answered. Allah’s messenger (May Allah bless him) says to Abi Thar, (Oh, Aba Thar take care not to abandon your brother because the deed would not be accepted with abandonment. Oh, Aba Thar: I prohibit you from abandoning because the deed would not be accepted with abandonment and if you have to do it, it must not be exceed three days.), because the deed would not be accepted if the believer has abandoned his brother. He also added by saying, ( Any Muslims who abandon each other for three days without restoring their relation, they are not Muslims and there is no authority between them. So the first one who restores the relation and talk to his brother, he is the one who is first to be in paradise at the day of judgment. It was also reported that Imam Sadiq (Peace be upon him)) said, No two persons decided to be away from each other because of abandonment, one of them deserves of being non Muslim and deserves the curse or may be both of them deserve this. Mo’tab inquired by saying, May I be your ransom. This is oppressor, what about the oppressed? He said because he does not call his brother back to his relation and does not forget what he has said.
I heard my father saying, ( When two persons quarrel and one of them needs the other, the oppressed has to go back to his ex-brother and say to him:( Yes, my brother I am the wrong- doer until he ends abandonment between him and his ex-friend, because Allah, the Glorified, Exalted is just, takes to the oppressed from the wrong-doer.) We have to clean our hearts from deceit, jealousy, hatred and hypocrisy, otherwise Imam al-Sadiq’s ( Peace be upon him) say would apply to us. ( The one who spend his night with his heart is full for his Muslim brother, he has spent his night under the resentment of Allah and in the morning he would stay like that until he repents and returns back.) Islam is the religion of love, brotherhood and the settlement of rights. To pray and fast but our relations are not in compliance with Allah’s orders and our hearts lack the love to each other , it is useless, because prayers teach us love, purity and our supplication would not be answered if our hearts are not free from hatred, jealousy, deceit and other things.
4-We prepare ourselves for receiving the month of Ramadhan by looking for the situation of the needy. Ramadhan comes but there are hungry stomachs and people sleep on the floor, and there are families who are unable to provide suitable clothes for their members and people who are unable to find shelter or refuge and we live in comfort and luxury, enjoying good clothes, good food and drinks but justice requires from us to look for and find the needy and the hungry before the arrival of the month of Ramadhan because the tradition states in this regard, (The one who has an extra dress and he realises there is some one who is in need for it, Allah would overthrow him on his nostrils in hell.) If I have an extra dress and I have a brother who does not have one, this is not from the faith and nor from Islam. Therefore, it is stated in the traditions that (The similarity of believers in their love and kindness is as the body when a part of it experiences pain all other parts would participate in sleeplessness and fever.) It is also required that the Muslim individual must not live with his appetite full and his believing brother suffers from hunger because it is stated in the traditions that, ( He does not believe in me the one who spends his night with full stomach while his neighbour suffers from hunger.) ( He is not one of us who does not be good to his neighbours.) Therefore, the believer must look for and find the circumstances of not only his close brother but the far away ones- in any part of the earth as well. it is the duty of all believers wherever they are. we help the needy if we find one, and as responsibility is not only confined to the home, or neighbour but is for all believers where ever they are. If you realise there is some one who is needy in far part of the earth and does not save him while you are able, you will be held accountable. In the tradition it is stated that ( Any believer prohibits another believer something that he is in need for and he is able to do so from himself or from others, Allah will held him at the day of judgement with his face black, his eyes blue and his eyes tied to his neck and it would be said about him, (This is the traitor who has been faithless to Allah and his messenger then he would overthrown to fire.)
Islam requires from us to understand the situation of the poor and the needy and must not waste our fiances in manners that have not been approved by Allah in order to avoid them be calamity and a serpent would be placed around our necks and we will be held accountable for any Dirham we have spent. The tradition states that (No human being is left at doomsday until he is asked about four: about the way he has spent his age and in what, his body in what he has wasted, how and where he has got his finances from and about our love we, the family of the prophet.) So we have to spend our finances for Allah’s satisfaction and must not waste for the forbidden acts but help those who are in need with them whenever they come, particularly, those who are in need of provision. It is stated that among the good deeds in Ramadhan is preparing break fasting for those who are fasting in compliance with the prophet’s ( May Allah bless him) recommendation that states, (Oh people, any one of you who gets food for a fasting believer to break his fasting in this month, Allah would compensate his deed with the reward of emancipation of a servant and forgiveness for his old sins.) So, what about supporting a family and clothing a group of believers. How great is their number now a days! (Any believer who feeds fully another believer Allah would feed him from the fruits of paradise, and if he offers him a drink, Allah would give him a drink from the sealed nectar, and if he cloths him, Allah would cloth him with the green dresses, and he would be under Allah’s security as long as that dress has made him safe.
We ask the Almighty, the glorified, the Exalted, to assist us for fasting this month and satisfy Him with our prayers, making its nights alive with our good deeds. He is the Master who grant success.
Source – www.najaf.org