How fast time flies! A full year has passed, full of happy and sad events, and these nights and days will never return. Have you learned from the past? Have you forgotten your deeds during the last year? They are either good deeds, which you want to conceal so that you will receive their reward on the Last Day when neither wealth nor sons will avail you, and in this case, forgetting them is the best thing to do, or they are otherwise. Why do you overload yourself with the debt of sins when you will have to pay for them with your good deeds? Why are you reluctant to work for the Hereafter while can still plant good deeds so that you reap the fruits of righteousness by the blessing of Allah The Almighty?

Seize your days, nights, minutes and seconds, seek forgiveness and repent to Allah The Almighty from whatever sin the devil calls you to commit.

Our Prophet used to seek the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty and repent to him more than seventy or one hundred times a day, so raise yourself to the ranks of the rightly guided, who follow the guidance of the best Messenger. Adhere to the way of the pious so that you may join them; seek the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty who granted you health and innumerable favors.

With the advent of Ramadan, Your Lord has given you another opportunity that others may have lost, so that you live through the month of forgiveness and rejoice in the graces of Allah The Almighty, remembering Him, reciting the Quran, fasting, and standing at night in prayer.

Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.} [Quran 2:183] What is this righteousness that is the fruit of fasting? Righteousness means that Allah The Almighty is obeyed and not disobeyed, that He is remembered and not forgotten, and that He is thanked and not shown ungratefulness.

Allah The Almighty Says after this call (what means): {The month of Ramadan [is that] in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey - then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that [to] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.} [Quran 2:185]

He, The Almighty, States that He is close and responds to anyone who takes recourse to Him; He Says (what means): {And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me - indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.} [Quran 2:186] It is as if He urges you – after the completion of Ramadan – to raise your hands to thank Him for His bounty, ask for His mercy, beseech Him for Paradise and seek refuge with Him from Hellfire.

The most important objective of fasting is to attain piety, which means to fear Allah The Exalted, to act according to His religion, to be satisfied with His provision even if it is little, and to prepare oneself for the day of departure. What a beautiful thing fasting is! It purifies the soul and raises it to the rank of the noble souls. It is a reason for the remission of sins and the multiplication of rewards, thus Allah The Almighty associate it to Himself so as to honor it. The Prophet narrated about his Lord – blessed and exalted is He: “Every (good) deed of the son of Adam would be multiplied, a good deed receiving a tenfold to seven hundredfold reward with the exception of fasting, for it is done for Me and I will give a reward for it.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] He The Almighty also Says: “There is expiation for each action, and fasting is for Me, and I shall reward for it.” [Al-Bukhari]

To be continued …

Ramadan Opens the Gates of Paradise - II

Ramadan Opens the Gates of Paradise - III