In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

The Way of Benevolence

According to the narrations from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH&HP) and the Infallible Imams (PBUT), the month of Ramadan is the best of months and its hours are the best hours ⁽¹⁾." Thus it is proper that everyone hold this month in great esteem and spend the precious time of this month performing the best deeds. However, how can one put this fact into practice? It is better to find the answer to this question through the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUT).

When the holy month of Ramadan arrived, Imam Sajjad (PBUH) used to pray to Allah (SWT) in this way,

"… praise belongs to God who appointed among the ways of benevolence His month, the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, the month of submission, the month of purity, the month of putting to test, the month of standing in prayer, in which the Quran was sent down as guidance to the people, and as clear signs of the Guidance and the Separator! He clarified its excellence over other months by the many sacred things and well-known excellencies which He placed therein, for He made unlawful in it what He declared lawful in others to magnify it, He prohibited foods and drinks in it to honor it, and He appointed for it a clear time which He (majestic and mighty is He) allows not to be set forward and accepts not to be placed behind. 

O Allah, bless Muhammad and his Household; inspire us with knowledge of its (Ramadan’s) excellence, veneration of its inviolability, and caution against what You have forbidden within it; help us to fast in it by restraining our limbs from acts of disobedience toward you and our employing them in that which pleases You, so that we lend not our ears to idle talk and hurry not with our eyes to diversion; may we stretch not our hands toward the forbidden and stride not with our feet toward the prohibited; may our bellies hold only that which You have made lawful and our tongues speak only what  You have exemplified; may we undertake nothing but that which brings (us) close to Your reward and pursue nothing but that which protects (us) from Your punishment!

Then rid all of our deeds of any pretense or desire for fame, lest we associate therein anything with You or seek therein any object of desire but You! 

O Allah, bless Muhammad and his Household; in this month, make us attend to the appointed moments of the five prayers within the bounds You have set, the obligations You have decreed, the duties You have assigned, and the times You have specified. Make us like the ones who have recognized the high status of the prayer, and observe its elements. Make us like those who perform prayers in their right times, as Your servant and Your messenger set down in his tradition (Your blessings be upon him and his Household) …

Give us success in this month to tighten our bonds of kin with devotion and gifts,    attend to our neighbors with bestowal and giving, rid our possessions from claims, and purify them through paying the alms; (Give us success to) go back to him who has gone far from us, treat justly him who has wronged us, and make peace with him who shows enmity toward us (except him who is regarded as an enemy in You and for You, for he is the enemy whom we will not befriend, the party whom we will not hold dear); (Give us success to) seek nearness to You through blameless works which will purify us from sins and preserve us from renewing faults, so that none of Your angels will bring for You the kinds of obedience and sorts of nearness-seeking unless they be less than what we bring! ⁽²⁾"

On behalf of Roshd website, we congratulate all Muslims, especially you dear friend, upon the arrival of the month of Allah (SWT), the month of blessing, the spring for Quran, the holy month of Ramadan.

Roshd Islamic Shia Website

Footnotes:

1. Amaali by Sheikh Saduq, p. 93

2. Parts from the Supplication 44 of Sahifah Sajjadiah, selected from a translation by Syed Husain M. Jafri.