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Welcoming the Month of Ramadan:
The Best Deeds Are God-Consciousness and Avoiding What Allah Has Forbidden
Shaykh al-Ṣadūq relates, with a reliable chain of transmission, from Imam al-Riḍā (peace be upon him), from his forefathers, from the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), who said:
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and his family) addressed us one day and said:
“O people! The month of Allah has come to you with blessing, mercy, and forgiveness. It is a month which, with Allah, is the best of months; its days are the best of days, its nights the best of nights, and its hours the best of hours.”
He emphasized that the best of deeds in this month is to exercise piety and restraint from what Allah has forbidden, and he affirmed: “Truly wretched is the one who is deprived of Allah’s forgiveness in this great month.”
“It is a month in which you are invited to the hospitality of Allah and are made among the people honored by Allah. Your breaths in it are acts of glorification, your sleep in it is worship, your deeds in it are accepted, and your supplications in it are answered. So ask Allah, your Lord, with sincere intentions and pure hearts to grant you success in fasting it and reciting His Book. Truly wretched is the one who is deprived of Allah’s forgiveness in this great month.”
“Remember, through your hunger and thirst in it, the hunger and thirst of the Day of Resurrection. Give charity to your poor and needy, honor your elders, have mercy on your young, maintain your ties of kinship, guard your tongues, lower your gazes from what is unlawful to look at, and restrain your hearing from what is unlawful to listen to. Be compassionate toward the orphans of the people, so that compassion may be shown to your orphans. Repent to Allah from your sins and raise your hands to Him in supplication at the times of your prayers, for they are the best hours—times in which Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, looks upon His servants with mercy, answers them when they converse with Him, responds to them when they call upon Him, and grants them when they supplicate to Him.”
“O people! Your souls are held in pledge by your deeds, so release them through your seeking forgiveness. Your backs are weighed down by your burdens, so lighten them by prolonged prostration. Know that Allah—glorious is His remembrance—has sworn by His might that He will not punish those who pray and prostrate, and that He will not terrify them with the Fire on the Day when people stand before the Lord of the worlds.”
“O people! Whoever among you provides ifṭār (the breaking of the fast) for a believing fasting person in this month will, with Allah, receive the reward of freeing a slave and forgiveness for his past sins.”
It was said: “O Messenger of Allah, not all of us are able to do that.”
He (may Allah bless him and his family) replied: “Protect yourselves from the Fire, even with half a date; protect yourselves from the Fire, even with a sip of water. Indeed, Allah grants this reward to one who does this small act when he is unable to do more.”
“O people! Whoever improves his character in this month will have a pass across the Ṣirāṭ on the Day when feet will slip. Whoever eases the burden upon those under his authority in this month, Allah will ease his reckoning. Whoever restrains his evil in it, Allah will restrain His anger from him on the Day he meets Him. Whoever honors an orphan in it, Allah will honor him on the Day he meets Him. Whoever maintains his ties of kinship in it, Allah will connect him with His mercy on the Day he meets Him; and whoever cuts them off, Allah will cut him off from His mercy on the Day he meets Him. Whoever performs a voluntary prayer in it, Allah will write for him freedom from the Fire. Whoever fulfills an obligatory duty in it will receive the reward of one who fulfills seventy obligations in other months. Whoever increases sending blessings upon me in it, Allah will make his scale heavy on the Day when the scales are light. Whoever recites a single verse of the Qur’an in it will have the reward of one who completes the Qur’an in other months.”
“O people! The gates of Paradise are opened in this month, so ask your Lord not to close them upon you. The gates of Hellfire are closed, so ask your Lord not to open them upon you. The devils are chained, so ask your Lord not to unleash them upon you.”
Then the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (peace be upon him), said:
I stood up and said: “O Messenger of Allah, what is the best of deeds in this month?”
He (may Allah bless him and his family) replied: “O Abā al-Ḥasan, the best of deeds in this month is piety and restraint from what Allah has forbidden.”
Then he wept. I said: “O Messenger of Allah, what makes you weep?”
He said: “O ʿAlī, I weep for what will be violated against you in this month.”
