Year Nineteen
Issue No. 952 - 22/Ramadan/1432 AH
Corresponding to August 23, 2011 AD

Contents:
* Mihrab Platform:
Bidding Farewell to the Month of Ramadan

Mihrab Platform
Bidding Farewell to the Month of Ramadan

The main axes of the subject:
1- Hospitality towards the guest
2- The month of Ramadan is the holiday of the righteous
3- Bidding farewell to the month of Ramadan
4- The last night
5- The blessings of the holiday

Purpose:

We will explain the necessity for becoming active and making up for the issues that we missed as we reach the end of this blessed month. We will also explain the importance of the last night couple with the Eid’s evening.

Exporting the subject:

Imam al Sajjad (a.s.) says bidding farewell to the month of Ramadan:

“Peace be upon thee, O month in which anticipations have come nearer and works have been scattered! Peace be upon thee - How drawn out wert thou for the sin-ners! How awesome wert thou in the hearts of the faithful!”¹

Hospitality towards the guest:

Ramadan is the month of repentance and forgiveness, pardon and mercy, the month of freeing souls from hell and winning the paradise.

Allah (The Exalted) honored this month when he attributed it to his deity without the rest of the months. And he honors us by hosting us as guests in this month during which he demonstrates his generosity. Therefore, we should not welcome and bid farewell to this month equally like the rest of the months. Sayyid Ibn Tawous said: “O man, don’t be like someone who is receiving an unworthy guest; this guest is honorably equal to the guest that came last year. It arrives with graces, bringing along all kinds of happiness with divine attentions and indescribable hopes and attendances. Some people have badly treated this generous guest with ignorance and unfriendliness, demonstrating towards it the treatment of the unkind host. Hence, the generous guest departed blaming such hospitality, leaving the host with his disgrace of ill-treatment and bad hospitality, leaving his host behind to face his regret and sorrow. Therefore, be a good host towards your guest and recognize the rights for happiness that this guest brings along.”²

Should you be ungrateful and generous towards the guest, don’t insult it with bad deeds, by turning your back on it while bidding farewell by expressing disgrace and grave sins. At least, be fair by showing respect without accompanying it with hatred and misbehavior. Your poor soul can be doomed by the wrongdoing and defamed by scandals and misbehavior in the court of the kings and public who gained security and satisfaction.”³

Ramadan month is the holiday of the righteous

Ramadan is the month of Allah and the month of his hospitality. It is the month of pardon and mercy, the month of freeing souls from hell and winning the paradise.”⁴

Ramadan is the month during which demons are shackled and devils are strapped while the hell gates are closed.

For these reasons, this month become a short holiday for the righteous and a long misery for the criminals. For example, Imam al Sajjad (a.s.) was quoted as saying: “Peace be upon thee, O greatest month of God! O festival of His friends! Peace be upon thee, O most noble of accompanying times! O best of months in days and hours! Peace be upon thee, O month in which expectations come near and good works are scattered about! Peace be upon thee, O comrade who is great in worth when found and who torments through absence when lost, O anticipated friend whose parting gives pain! Peace be upon thee - How drawn out wert thou for the sinners! How awesome wert thou in the hearts of the faithful!”⁵

Bidding farewell to the month of Ramadan

The greatest issue the poor servants [of Allah] may ask for in this month is that their souls be freed and saved from hell and that they win the paradise. This is the request of the poor guilty sinners, whose souls become weak at times; hence, they commit a number of sins. This is also the request of those sinners who lost their ways and de-railed from the path of guidance. Hence, they decided to repent to Allah and get rid of the weight of sins and the cargo of misdeeds. Anyone who does not obtain this gift (freeing from hell and winning the heaven) is a wretched person.

The prophet (s.a.a.w.) was quoted as saying: “The wretched, true wretched, is he who comes out of this month without being forgiven for his sins.”⁶
 
Therefore, the one of us must make up for what he missed and ask Allah for forgiveness and for success in performing the good deeds and obedience as well as staying adhered to the best deeds in the month of Ramadan. “The best of deeds in this month is piety, avoiding the issues that Allah (The Exalted) forbade.”⁷

In order to obtain such prize, Allah’s messenger (s.a.a.w.) was quoted as saying: “It is a month the beginning of which is mercy, the middle of which is forgiveness, and the end of which is salvation from hell.”⁸

The last night:

This is the night of opportunity; rather the last opportunity for those poor servants whose ship docked at the coast of a sea of the divine generosity and giving, only they must steer in the right way, repent, and exert efforts in order to admit their negligence and ignorance. Perhaps, Allah’s mercy will catch them and hopefully they will not miss the caravan of hope. Hence, let them join the procession of the unlimited divine generosity.

Jabir Bin Abdullah al Ansari was quoted as saying that Allah’s messenger (s.a.a.w.) said: “My nation was given in the month of Ramadan five issues that were never given to a nation of any prophet before me: … The fifth is: In the last night they will all be forgiven. The man said: is this the night of Qadr O messenger of Allah? He said: Don’t you see when the workers finish their work they get paid.”⁹

The blessings of the holiday:

The holiday (Eid) is the day of harvest and prizes for those who performed their duties; hence, their deeds were accepted. The Eid’s eve was named the night of the prize.

For example, Allah’s messenger (s.a.a.w.) was quoted as saying: “… The evening of the Lesser Bairam (Eid ul-Fitr) was named the night of the prize. Therefore, as soon as the early morning of Eid ul-Fitr arrives, Allah (The Exalted) will send the angels to roam all the counties. They descend to the earth hovering the regions and roads, calling with a voice that will be heard by all the creatures of Allah except the Jinn and human beings. They say: O nation of Muhammad, exit towards your generous lord for he is very generous and forgives the great sins. Hence, once they stand in their prayer positions, Allah (The Exalted) says: O my angels, what is the reward of a worker who finishes his job? Hence, the angels say: Our lord and God, his reward is that you pay him. And his exaltedness says: I call my angels to witnesses that I rendered their reward for fasting the month of Ramadan and spending their nights in prayers my satisfaction and forgiveness. And his exaltedness says: O my servants, ask me, I swear in my exaltedness, anything you ask me today for your afterworld I will give you, for your world I will see it for you. I swear in my exaltedness, I will conceal your flaws as long as you regard me. I swear in my exaltedness, I will not expose you before the immortals. Dismiss, you are forgiven, you have sought my satisfaction and I am satisfied with you…”¹⁰

1- Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, supplication 44.
2- Al Iqbal Fil A’amal al Hasanah Fima Yu’mal Marra Fis-Sana, by Sayyid Ibn Tawous, Vol. 1, P. 420.
3- Same source, P. 421.
4- Ramadan day supplication; accounted by al Iqbal book, Vol. 1, P. 202.
5- Bidding Farewell to the Month of Ramadan, book al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, P. 160, supplication 45.
6- Bihar al Anwar, by scholar Muhammad Baqir al Majlisi, Vol. 96, P. 362, H. 23.
7- Book al A’mali, by Sheikh al Saddouq, P. 84, H. 4.
8- Al Bihar, Vol. 96, P. 342.
9- A’mal al Ash-hor al Thalatha, by Sheikh al Saddouq, P. 231.
10- Fada'el al Ash-hor al Thalatha, P. 228, H. 229.