My brother and sister: I do not think that you forgot to prepare the budget of the month of Ramadan for food and drink! Nevertheless, you may have forgotten to prepare the budget of righteous deeds, repentance, seeking forgiveness and supplication!
My brother and sister: The budget of these acts means to possess a file named “Returning to Allah The Almighty!”
My brother and sister: The first title you will find in this file is: “Reckon yourself first”!
If you manage to fill in the data under this title, you will move to another title, namely: “Repentance to Allah The Almighty”.
You will not manage to fill the data of this title unless you offer evidence for your honesty in filling the data of the first title…for your repentance to be sincere!
My brother and sister: Reckon yourself for your fasting…for your fast to be pure… and to be a truthful fasting!
Al-Hasan Al-Basri said: "The slave will continue to be good as long as he preaches to himself and as long as he is concerned with reckoning himself."
My brother and sister: Many people do not prepare themselves to receive this blessed month… so they enter it while being stained with acts of disobedience and sins! Thus, they are not affected by fasting it and are not moved by establishing the night prayers therein! Therefore, they leave it just as they entered it!
Brother and sister: Acts of disobedience have great impacts in hardening hearts! Ramadan is the month of excellence in worship and the season of softening the hearts. If you do not prepare a soft heart that is free from the filth of acts of disobedience, you will miss the boat of Ramadan and stand alone by the shore… deprived and waiting for rescue! Be truthful with Allah The Almighty in this month and you will find Him near you.
My brother and sister, have you prepared sincere determination to open a new page?
My brother and sister: If you have pages in your life that were stained with the filth of acts of disobedience, then Ramadan is a season which grants you a white page to fill with new deeds that are as white as the new page itself!
My brother and sister: Do not make the days of Ramadan like your ordinary days! Instead, make them a white sign on the forehead of the days of your life!
Jaabir ibn ‘Abdullaah, may Allah be pleased with them, said: "If you fast, let your hearing, eyesight and tongue abstain from lying, forbidden acts and harming neighbors. Adorn yourself with reverence and tranquility on the day of your fasting. Do not make the day when you are fasting and the day when you are not fasting the same!"
My brother: If, before Ramadan, you were lazy to attend prayers in the mosques then be determined to visit the houses of Allah The Almighty in Ramadan. Perhaps Allah The Almighty Will Grant you constant success so that you adhere to praying in the houses of Allah The Almighty till your death.
If you were a miser, make Ramadan a season for sacrifice and generosity as it is the month of generosity, kindness and doubling rewards. If you were heedless to remember Allah The Almighty, then make the days of Ramadan days of Thikr (i.e. remembrance of Allah The Almighty), supplication and recitation on the Book of your Lord as it is the month of the Quran.
My brother and sister: Be keen on the cleanliness of your fast like your keenness on the cleanliness of your clothes: avoid idle speech, immorality and vice. The Messenger of Allah said:
"Fasting is not just (abstaining from) eating and drinking but it is also (refraining) from vain speech and foul (or obscene) language. If somebody should insult or quarrel with you, then you should say, 'I am fasting'" [Ibn Khuzaymah and Al-Haakim] [Al-Albaani: Saheeh]
My brother and sister: Do not be among those whom the Prophet described as: "Perhaps a fasting person will get nothing from his fast save hunger and thirst and perhaps someone who stands to pray at night will get nothing from his standing except sleeplessness." [At-Tabaraani] [Al-Albaani: Saheeh]
My brother and sister: This is the one whose fasting prevents him only from food and drink and not from forbidden acts and falsehood. As you have seen, he does not benefit from his fasting or his night prayers!
If I do not preserve my hearing and sight and confine my speech to silence, then I will get nothing from my fast except hunger and thirst. I say that I fasted but, in fact, I did not.
Al-Hasan Al-Basri said: "Allah Made the month of Ramadan a track for His creatures in which they compete by obeying Him to attain His pleasure. Some people hasten so they win while others hold back so they lose. It is very strange that some people play and laugh on a day when the good doers win and the falsifiers lose!"
My brother and sister: Make your fast a school where you discipline your own self, teach it the best morals and commit it to virtue so that when Ramadan is over, you feel the good result of your fasting and are among those who benefit from this blessed month.
My brother and sister ,have you prepared yourself to be among those who are saved from the Hellfire?
My Muslim brother and sister: This is the aim for which people fasted and believers competed (i.e. Salvation from Hellfire)!
My brother and sister: The really happy person is he who leaves his fast after being forgiven and is listed among the people of continuous bliss.
My brother and sister: Have you thought with yourself before Ramadan about salvation from the Hellfire of Allah The Almighty? Have you prepared yourself with fear from the punishment of Allah The Exalted?
My brother and sister: It is (Hellfire)! From fear of it, the righteous were thirsty (because of fasting) and they had patience for the heat of the life of this world to attain security and shade on the Day of Resurrection.
My brother and sister: Few people prepare their own souls before Ramadan to receive these blessed days while they are (caught) between hope and fear!
My brother and sister: Imagine if you needed to run an errand and you travelled for thirty days! And, after reaching your destination, you returned empty handed and your efforts became useless! How would you feel then?
My brother and sister: This is the example of whoever fasts in Ramadan! His aim is to attain forgiveness and be saved from Hellfire. If he does not attain this, then he is indeed deprived. The Prophet said: "Upon the breaking of every fast, Allah Saves some people from Hellfire." [Ahmad and At-Tabaraani] [Al-Albaani: Saheeh]
When Ramadan was over, Ibn Masʻood, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say: "Who of us was accepted so that we congratulate him and who of us was deprived so that we pay him condolences!"
My brother and sister: Be keen on attaining the blessings of this virtuous month. Perhaps Allah The Almighty Will Make your end good. The Prophet said: "Do good all your life and seek to attain the gifts of mercy of Allah The Almighty. Allah Has some gifts of His mercy with which He Sends to whoever He Wills among His slaves. Ask Allah to conceal your faults and keep you secure from what you fear." [At-Tabaraani] [Al-Albaani: Saheeh].
My brother and sister: While I am concluding these pages, ask Allah The Almighty with me to cut our days short so that we reach Ramadan and ask Him to Make us among those upon whom He Has mercy for fasting it.
My Muslim brother and sister: It is the blessed month! Let your provisions for it be supplications so that you reach it be truthful in preparing for it so that it leads you to the gardens of bliss.
My brother and sister: May Allah The Almighty Grant you and me the truthfulness of the fasting people, the enthusiasm of the performers of night prayers and the qualities of the pious. May Allah The Almighty Gather me and you on the Day of Resurrection among the winners of bliss. May Allah The Almighty Make me and you, with His Mercy and Pleasure, reach the rank of those who are brought near (to Him). All praise be to Allah The Almighty always without detraction. May the peace and blessings of Allah The Almighty be upon the Prophet, his family, his Companions and those who followed them with excellence.
How did you prepare for Ramadan? - I