Message from Ramadan (1) to whomever witnesses it from the Nation of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him

By Sheykh Prof: Khalid ibn ‘Abdur-Rahman Al Shayi‘

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Almighty, alone. Peace and blessings of Allaah be upon whom there will be no prophet after him; our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his household and his companions. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allaah alone, who has no associates and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and messenger.

To proceed:

Here is the blessed month of Ramadan has come so that we may live its blessed days and nights. Here is its days come to an end like all other days of the worldly life that bring our life to a close.

Here are the Muslim people hold different approaches and ways in welcoming and planning for the blessed month of Ramadan. Some of them size the golden opportunity and hasten to do good deeds while others postpone doing good deeds and indulge in different forms of great deception.

In the light of this, it is really important to analyze such conditions so that we may be admonished and reminded. It is also an attempt to regain what is lost and make up for what is missed.

If we asked Ramadan: How did people welcome it? Ramadan would answer us saying:

O Honorable Islamic Nation

Allaah, The Almighty, has singled you out with what He did not make for any other nation. Has not you read the saying of Allaah, The Almighty: {…This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion…} [Quran 5: 3]

How a great religion! How the negligent do not pay attention to such great graces?

Ramadan says: If you ask about me, I think that no Muslim does not know the virtues and blessings of Ramadan that Allaah, The Almighty, has singled it out.

I have come to you and most of you welcomed me in the way they welcome very important guest with hospitality and warm welcoming.

In spite of this fact, some other Muslims made fun of me. They only welcomed me in much the same way they welcome all other months. I has not come except to train them and prepare them to the proper way on which they lead all the days of their life.

May Allaah grant thanks and great rewards for those who welcomed me warmly! Let they know that they will find the blessing of all the good acts of worship they did such as prayers, charities, reciting the Noble Quran, all benevolent acts they did towards people like giving food for the fasting people to break their fasting, helping the needy and all other acts of righteous and good, in this life and the great reward (Paradise) Allaah, The Almighty, promised them for our Lord will not allow to be lost the reward of any who did well in deeds.

Recite if you wish the saying of Allaah, The Almighty:

•   {And their Lord responded to them, "Never will I allow to be lost the work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another...} [Quran 3: 195]

•   {And whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer - those will enter Paradise and will not be wronged, [even as much as] the speck on a date seed.} [Quran 4: 124]

•   {Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.} [Quran 16: 97]

As for the negligent i.e. those who lagged behind the caravan of faith and accepted loss and humiliation for themselves, their right upon me is to sincerely advise them and give them kind admonishing that befit their belonging to the most honorable Nation and the best Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

O Honorable Islamic Nation, when I have come to you, I have found the Islamic Nation suffers from many wounds and pains that are greater than the past year.

They are bleeding wounds that sadden and make us anxious. I have seen that some of good people among you tried to stop such bleeding and holding back their causes while many people whom I know did not care about such matter, never felt sad for what is happening to his fellow Muslim from the different forms of oppressions and severe attacks, the thing that entails every Muslim individual to support his fellow Muslim with all what he can afford from supplication and money.

The poet Ahmad Saalim Ba’atab (2)  said;

O Ramadan, you have returned while our footsteps still stumble in every road.

O Ramadan, we are the patient towards harm, our feelings are bleed while we are not affected.

O Ramadan, you have returned while our words still assassinated by the horrible silence and thus they are buried.

O Ramadan, you have returned while our smiles still suffer from torture on our lips and thus they are melted.

Our souls are hungry and get tired from their determinations that fast and break their fast by promises.

O Ramadan, the age of oppression gets out its vomit of impudence in my bag.

Peace is a comedy whose acts are sold by an age that is petrified by the law of pretexts.

Justice died before the time of its maturity. It is killed by the greediness that overcomes it.

Those who killed in the massacres are my brothers. They melted and saddened my heat.

O Ramadan, you have seen us in a jungle as captives and the good of us are tortured.

You have seen us as torn nations and our youth are heedless.

Their morals and manners have changed and altered.

Fear is a dream and loss is freedom.

Treachery is determination and deception is intelligence.

Patience is to live while your right is lost.

Raise your hands to the heaven for we may change by the help of Allaah.

Ramadan says: O Honorable Islamic Nation!

It is more appropriate in this season to have loyalty and love for each other for the sake of Allaah, The Almighty, and this is what makes you different from all other nations.

This blessed month has great indications of your faithful unity that made the connection among you your belief in Allah as your Lord, Islam as your religion, and Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, as your Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Then, why are there dissensions and differences among you? Why such degradation and disgrace and paying attention to other nations only, seeking glory from them and aiming to reach honor via imitating them?

Have not you heard the statement of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “Fast when the people fast, break your fast when the people break their fast, and offer your sacrifice when the people offer their sacrifice.” [Reported by Abu Daawood, At-Tirmithi and Ibn Maajah] (3).

Contemplate, may Allaah have mercy upon you, such faithful unity that brought together your hearts in spite of your different languages, colors, and homelands. It is the unparalleled unity over the face of the earth. Then, why there are such great negligence and carelessness! In this regard, Allaah, The Almighty, Says (what means): {And brought together their hearts. If you had spent all that is in the earth, you could not have brought their hearts together; but Allah brought them together. Indeed, He is Exalted in Might and Wise.} [Quran 8: 63]

If you understand well this great faithful objective of Ramadan, so let me remind you with two important issues:

Firstly, it is obligatory upon you to feel proud by Islam and adhere firmly to its Sharee‘ah (i.e. divine laws) and not to be deceived by the misguiding calls such as those who call for unity of religions and integration among human beings among what is called comprehensive globalization that imposes separation from a number of basic principles and deep fundamentals of your religion. If you follow them, destruction will be nearer to you than any past time.

Secondly, it is what a number of the young men and women from the Islamic Nation was afflicted with such as imitating the Jews, Christians and other non-Muslim nations and thus they become imitate their beliefs, morals and traditions.

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1) I have gotten this title and some of its sentences from Prof. Sheykh Mustafa As-Sibaa‘i, may Allaah have mercy upon him, in his book Ahkaam As-Siyaam wa falsafatih fi Dhawa’ Al-Qur’aan wa As-Sunnah, p. 79, 6th ed. Al-Maktab Al-Islaami Beirut.

2) Mijalit Al-Manhal, ed. No. (513) excerpted from the book: Fiqh As-Sawm wa Fadhl Ramadaan (2/1100) by Professor Sayed ibn Husayn Al-‘Ifaani, 1th ed. 1415. Maktabah As-Sunnah in Cairo.

3) Reported in Sunan Abu Daawood (2324), Jaami‘ At-Tirmithi (697) and Sunan Ibn Maajah (1660) and the wording for At-Tirmithi. Prominent scholar Al-Albaani, may Allaah have mercy upon him, deemed it Saheeh (authentic) Hadeeth. Imam Abu ‘Isa At-Tirmithi, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said after verifying this Hadeeth: “Some scholars interpreted this Hadeeth saying it means that fasting and breaking fast should be with the vast majority of people.” 

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